Maxine: that man has ruined me

Sobbing Maxine Carr has told her mother that her life has been ruined by "that man".

The former girlfriend of Soham murderer Ian Huntley was said to have been inconsolable as she contemplated her future outside prison.

In the short term she could be moved today from Holloway to Durham prison, where mass murderer Rosemary West is held in a special cell.

But the mood in Carr's home town of Grimsby, meanwhile, has turned hostile. Former friends are warning that if she returns she would be lynched by angry crowds.

Even the Rector of Grimsby has advised Carr to seek a new identity and not to go back to Lincolnshire.

Carr, 26, was sentenced to three and a half years for lying to police to protect Huntley, but because of the time spent in remand, she could be released in May.

Family friend Doris Hewis, 66, who lives a few doors away from Carr's mother, Shirley Capp, in Grimsby said: "Shirley says Maxine has been crying on the telephone to her saying she hates that man. She can't bring herself to say his name and feels sick at the thought she once loved and wanted to marry him.

"She spoke to her a few days ago when Maxine said it was all getting to her. Maxine said if she got out she will never be able to come back to Grimsby."

Factory worker Ms Capp, 60, added: "We're not criminals. We have never been in trouble with the law in our lives. Maxine has been dragged into this. Her picture has been in every paper. What sort of life will she now lead?"

Residents on the Comber Place estate where Carr grew up have vowed to attack her. Student Kane Camps, 18, said: "She will not last five minutes in Grimsby. People here are already planning what to do if she returns.

"She is evil and she is a liar. She will be beaten and stoned and I personally

will join in."

David Stone, now 29, who attended Healing comprehensive school with Carr in 1989, said: "She lied and that makes her just as bad as him.

"Both she and Huntley should be hanged for what they did to those two little girls.

"She lied in 1999 and gave him an alibi when he was accused of rape. If she told the truth then those little girls would

most likely still be alive today. She isn't Myra Hindley as she didn't murder, but she might as well be."

The Rector of Grimsby, Canon Michael Hunter, 62, advised Carr not to return.

He said: "She lied for Ian Huntley. No one will ever know whether she knew if that monster had killed them. It will be impossible for her to be rehabilitated here. She was conniving, weak, and had no moral fibre. There is too much hostility towards her here."

If Carr is transferred to Durham she is likely to be placed on the hospital wing for her own safety.