Carr in court on benefit fraud charge

Maxine Carr, the ex-fiancee of Soham murderer Ian Huntley, was appearing in court today charged with benefit fraud.

Carr, who is serving a three-year jail sentence for conspiring with Huntley to pervert the course of justice, faces a string of charges of deception and attempted deception.

The charges relate to claims for housing benefit, income support and jobseeker’s allowance. Carr is also accused of lying about her qualifications in job applications.

One of the jobs was as a classroom assistant at St Andrew’s Primary School in Soham, Cambridgeshire, where Huntley’s victims, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, were pupils.

Huntley, the former caretaker at Soham Village College, was jailed for life at the Old Bailey in December after he was found guilty of murdering the 10-year-olds.

Carr, 27, was jailed for three years at the same trial but was cleared of two charges of assisting an offender.

In March, Carr was transferred from north London’s notorious Holloway Prison to Foston Hall in rural Derbyshire.

Her move to the “softer” jail was in preparation for her expected release on licence in the next few days.

Fellow inmates at Foston Hall staged a protest about her presence there last week.

The arrangements for her release have been kept secret amid fears she could be attacked, but there has been widespread speculation about where she will live.

Last week, the Australian government denied the existence of any plan to move Carr to a new life there.

It issued a public statement following speculation that police, prison and probation officials had tried to persuade Carr to leave the UK and adopt a secret identity in Australia.

Senator Chris Ellison, Australian minister for justice and customs, said: “While it is not generally the practice of the Australian government to comment on such matters, British reports that the Australian government had agreed to accept Maxine Carr are incorrect.”

Carr is known to be against the idea of moving abroad and wants to return to live with her mother in Grimsby.

That would create a major security headache and would require a continuous police operation to protect her from vigilante attacks.

The operation could involve a 24-hour guard and cost up to £1m (€1.5m) a year.

Another option is to place her at a secret address elsewhere in the UK and give her a new identity.

Her lawyers could then apply for a legal ban on publicising her whereabouts until she dies. Such a ban could also cover any children she has.

But with one of the most recognisable faces in Britain, she could be spotted wherever she goes and there are fears that details of her whereabouts would spread quickly through the internet and emails despite such a ban.