Carr begins evidence in Soham trial

Maxine Carr today began her evidence at the Old Bailey trial of her ex-lover Ian Huntley who stands accused of the double child murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

She entered the witness box after her own lawyer admitted she had lied “persistently” during the two weeks after the 10-year-olds died in the home she shared with Huntley in Soham, Cambridgeshire.

Michael Hubbard QC said his client had lied to protect the man she loved and had planned to marry.

Huntley, 29, a former caretaker at Soham Village College, denies murdering the girls on Sunday August 4 last year, but has admitted conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

Carr, 26, a former teaching assistant at the girls’ primary school, denies the conspiracy charge and two counts of assisting an offender.

The prosecution alleges she gave him a false alibi by claiming she was in Soham on the day the girls died, when she was really in Grimsby.