Carr may seek bail and go to safe house, says lawyer

Maxine Carr, who is accused of misleading police in the hunt for the murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, may apply for bail and be taken to a safe house, her lawyer said yesterday.

Ms Carr, 25, has been in police cells or prison since her arrest more than two weeks ago, but Roy James, her solicitor, says she is considering asking for bail.

The former teaching assistant in the 10-year-olds' class in Soham, Cambridgeshire, is accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice, a charge which carries a maximum sentence of life.

Mr James said a safe house would have to be found before he would make an application for her release, but said bail would be granted automatically in similar cases.

He told the Law Society's Gazette: "People have misunderstood the position. She has not been charged with the girls' murder and if the media background to the case is ignored she would be granted bail as a matter of course. Although the case is at an early stage, we are considering bail if a safe house can be provided."

Ms Carr has been held in the high-security segregation unit of Holloway prison, north London, since her first appearance at Peterborough magistrates' court on 22 August. A video link was used for her court hearing on Thursday.

An angry crowd of up to 500 people gathered outside the court for her first appearance, contributing to the decision for the video link to be used, and Mr James said it was probable it would be used again for her next hearing on 27 September.

A safe house would almost certainly be a considerable distance from Soham and its location would need to be approved by the courts. The address would be known only to Ms Carr's lawyers, the police and the court authorities.

Mr James said he believed the cases against her and her partner Ian Huntley, 28, would go ahead, despite his "great concerns" over press coverage.

He said he was resigned to the nature of the coverage and fully expected it to affect criminal proceedings, but did not believe it would lead to the cases being thrown out.

"I am realistic enough to know that the judge will not throw the cases out because of the media interest," he said. "For political reasons, I don't believe the Attorney General will impose reporting restrictions, and so we will simply have to put up with the press coverage."

Mr James, of the Peterborough law firm Lewis James, was not available for further comment yesterday. Cambridgeshire police also refused to comment.

Holly and Jessica, who lived in Soham, vanished on Sunday, 4 August. Their bodies were discovered in Wangford, Suffolk, on 17 August.

Mr Huntley, who lived with Ms Carr in Soham, is a former caretaker at Soham Village College, a secondary school on the same site as St Andrew's Primary School where Ms Carr worked. He is charged with the murder of the girls and is being held at a high-security hospital under the Mental Health Act. He has not yet appeared in court.

Staff at the two schools, which have been sealed off for the past two weeks during an intensive police search for clues, are preparing for the start of the new term. They are being allowed back into parts of the school in readiness for the start of term next Monday.

An examination by forensic scientists of the area in Suffolk where the girls were found could take some time. Their funerals, which will be private family services, are expected this week.