Maxine: Let me go on TV

Maxine Carr is expected to give a hugely controversial television interview in an attempt to 'clear her name'.

She is due to be freed within weeks after being jailed for trying to cover the tracks of Soham killer Ian Huntley.

And, remarkably, she is planning to go on prime-time national television days after her release.

Her lawyers are in talks with TV executives to allow her to 'set the record straight'.

Astonishingly, 26-year-old Carr now firmly believes she helped the police investigation that convicted her ex-boyfriend of the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Carr is convinced she has been unfairly portrayed as 'Myra Hindley Mark Two'.

She has also told fellow inmates at Holloway Prison that police should be thanking her for the information she eventually provided against Huntley.

In fact, Carr initially lied to officers investigating the disappearance of Holly and Jessica in August 2002. She told police she was in the bath at the house she shared with Huntley when they vanished - thus giving him an alibi for the night he killed them. In reality, she had gone home to Grimsby.

The girls' bodies were eventually found 13 days later.

Carr's unprecedented move to appear on TV is likely to increase the row surrounding her imminent early release.

It was only on December 17 that she was jailed for three-and-a-half years for conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

And her release is likely to cost taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds a year as police are forced to protect her from any threats.

Last night, prison sources said Carr wants 'rehabilitation' in the eyes of a sceptical public.

The idea she is thought to be keenest on is a major TV interview - in the style of Princess Diana's Panorama programme with Martin Bashir in which she discussed her marriage.

Carr's lawyers are understood to be negotiating with major broadcasters.

They include Granada's Tonight With Trevor McDonald programme, which last year interviewed farmer Tony Martin after he was released from jail for shooting a burglar.

Carr's solicitor, Roy James, has categorically said that 'money is not an issue', and any payment for an interview would trigger a major row.

Payments to convicted criminals are against media industry rules but can, as in the case of Tony Martin, be justified on the grounds of 'public interest'.

Last night Tory MP Jim Paice, whose South East Cambridgeshire constituency covers Soham, said: 'I suppose there is no law to prevent her from doing this - but most people would find it quite unacceptable.

'Even if we were told that she had not taken any money, I don't suppose many people would believe that.'

Norman Brennan, of the Victims of Crime Trust, said: 'Maxine Carr diverted police resources away from Huntley at the most crucial time in the investigation into the vile murder of innocent children.

'If I were her, I would go and crawl under a stone and keep quiet and allow Holly and Jessica's parents to try to pick up the pieces of their lives.'

A source close to Carr said: 'She is planning to put her version of what she has done.

'I think she sees herself as some sort of minor celebrity and she'd like to give everybody a big shock.

'She feels that the police wouldn't have found out anywhere near as much as they did without her help.'

Carr is also understood to be writing a book.

The row over her impending release gained fresh momentum-last week when it emerged that Holloway governor Ed Willetts has rubber-stamped her application to be electronically tagged under the Home Detention Curfew scheme.

Carr is eligible for release because she has spent 17 months in jail, most while waiting for her trial to start.

Her file has been passed to ex-Prison Service chief Martin Narey, head of the Home Office's National Offender Management Scheme.

There are concerns that he may be bounced into approving the application because he fears an instant High Court appeal by Carr's legal team.

Yesterday, Holly's parents, Kevin and Nicola Wells, said any early release would be a 'national scandal'.

'We are deeply fearful that Maxine Carr will be freed,' they said. 'She played a part in a horrific and evil crime and should serve in full the sentence handed down to her.'