Enlarge imageLONDON (Reuters) - Maxine Carr, the former fiancee of Soham schoolgirls’ murderer Ian Huntley, has pleaded guilty to 20 charges of benefit fraud and lying in job applications.
The former teaching assistant was given a three-year community rehabilitation order on Monday during which she must report to a probation officer.
Carr, 27, is expected to be released from prison within days after serving half of a three-year term for lying to police investigating the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire in August 2002.
At a hearing at Nottingham Crown Court, Carr spoke only to enter guilty pleas to 15 counts of benefit fraud and five of lying in job applications. The offences took place between April 1996 and August 2002.
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
Her former lover Huntley was jailed for life for the murder of the 10-year-old schoolgirls after one of the most high-profile trials at the Old Bailey court in recent criminal history.
Carr lost a bid to win early release from prison in February. Prison chiefs said letting her out early would have undermined public confidence in the government’s early release scheme.
The London Evening Standard newspaper said on Monday she will be let out of jail on Friday and taken to a secret location.
Government sources have denied reports she will start a new life in Australia or return to her native Grimsby, where there is still public anger about her case.
"There has never been a prisoner with such a high profile released after such a short time in prison," an unnamed official told the Times newspaper. "She presents special problems."
