Thursday 6 October 2022 08:34 PM The hidden life of Britain's most hated woman Maxine Carr trends now

A controversial drama about how Maxine Carr helped cover up her lover Ian Huntley's child murders will air on Monday amid fears that Britain's most hated woman may be moved with the taxpayer again picking up the bill. 

The first trailer for the new mini-series, Maxine, documenting the Soham murders through the eyes of killer Huntley's fiancée was released last week ahead of the broadcast of the first episode on Monday on Channel 5. 

Jemma Carlton and Line of Duty's Scott Reid star as Maxine Carr and Ian Huntley star in the drama - but critics have decried the decision to make the show so close to the 20th anniversary of the murders of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, both aged 10 when they were killed in May 2002.

Despite her part in one of the most heinous crimes in modern British history, Carr has enjoyed a new life bankrolled by the taxpayer. She is reported to have been moved to at least 10 different safe houses since her release 18 years ago after just 21 months behind bars.

With the state protecting her identity, and guarding her around the clock, a dozen women are feared to have been abused or attacked by people who falsely believed they were Carr, who is now believed to be married with at least one child.

An insider has said the new drama will likely drum up interest in Carr's deceit - and could see her move again - with Britons picking up the bill. A source told MailOnline: 'Too much time and public money has been spent on her secret identity. They won't hesitate to move her again if her cover is blown'. 

Carr left Foston Hall jail in 2004 after serving just 21 months - and the cost of her new name, identity and police protection has cost taxpayers £2.5million or more.

Following her release taxpayers even picked up her £8,000 bill for dental work and cosmetic surgery to change her appearance.  Her hair colour and style will also have been changed. It was also claimed that Carr asked to have her shrinking breasts enlarged on the NHS for mental health reasons, claiming she was depressed because her breasts were too small. 

On top of fees for a makeover, there is also the cost of probation officers and a psychologist to 'care' for her. 

Carr moved repeatedly because of the reaction of people living in the area and in 2020 she was outed on social media, according to The Sun. 

Her alias, location and a recent photo were reportedly posted and then deleted - but police were said to have moved Carr to a safe house after the leak and arrangements were made to relocate her, her husband and son.

The Soham liar is just one of a small number of criminals in the UK to be given a secret identity upon her release, believed to cost the taxpayer up to £500,000-a-year. 

She was also give a home – and is rumoured to be married and have children. Her alias and location is unknown and she is protected by a lifelong anonymity order – making it illegal to reveal her new life. 

Huntley, who received two life sentences for the murders in 2003, killed Holly and Jessica in his house after he invited them inside, but he insisted their deaths were accidental. 

It is only recently that he has admitted he was guilty of their murders - and has said that he will never apply for parole out of respect for their families.

Before his conviction, he had told detectives that Carr - who worked as a teaching assistant for their class at St Andrew's Primary School - was in the house, but she had actually gone back to Grimsby to visit relatives. 

Carr was jailed for three-and-a-half years for perverting the course of justice by covering for Huntley but only served half of her sentence.

Since her release from prison in 2004 it has cost the taxpayer millions to provide Carr with a new identity and police protection.

At one point she was living in the same coastal town as Tracey Connolly - the cruel mother of Baby P. The area was dubbed the 'monsters-by-the-sea resort'. Furious locals complained that the town is being used as a 'dumping ground' for criminals.

It was chosen because of cheap housing and a high turnover of visitors and casual workers which should make it harder to identify ex-convicts. But this has not prevented residents from recognising their infamous faces. 

In 2011 Carr gave birth to her first child - a son - at the safe house where she had been living under a secret identity. She said previously it was her 'life's dream' to have children around her. 

However, the terms of the injunction are so stringent that their child cannot be told of its mother's true identity or her role in covering for Huntley. It means the baby could grow up never knowing its mother became one of the most reviled women in the country after the murders in Soham, Cambridgeshire.

And a separate court order may be necessary to ensure the child's identity is also protected. She is said to have miscarried twice after becoming pregnant by different lovers.

In 2014 she married her boyfriend - who was willing to forget her past - at a luxury wedding venue where his family were said to be 'horrified'. Her husband was described as being 'absolutely besotted' with her.

Maxine was given away by her mother — who was jailed herself in 2004 after intimidating a witness who gave evidence against Carr.  A source said at the time: 'The families of Holly and Jessica will never get to see their daughters marry'.

Carr is one of only around five former UK prisoners protected by a lifelong anonymity order — along with child killer Mary Bell and James Bulger's murderers Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. The most recent example is Britain's worst mother, Karen Matthews, who abducted her daughter Shannon and hid her in a divan bed to collect the reward money.