Mistaken for Maxine Carr

11:04am Monday 10th December 2007

AN INNOCENT woman mistaken for Maxine Carr and hounded out of her home in York has spoken of her ordeal.

She told how vandals repeatedly threw bricks and rocks threough her windows and left her terrified.

The woman, who has not been named, but is called "Marianne", is one of more than a dozen women wrongly accused of being Carr and driven from their homes across Britain since the former girlfriend of Soham double murderer Ian Huntley was released from prison in May 2004.

Angry mobs have forced the innocent victims to flee from their neighbourhoods despite many having no resemblance to the ex-teaching assistant and being able to prove who they are.

Marianne and two others have now spoken of their traumatic experiences for a hard-hitting television documentary, Being Maxine Carr, being broadcast on Channel 4, on Friday.

Her protests fell on deaf ears and amid a modern-day witch hunt of constant vandal attacks on her home and verbal abuse, she was forced to move away for her safety.

Carr disappeared from the public eye after serving half of her 42-month sentence for perverting the course of justice by lying to police and providing Huntley, who killed schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, with a false alibi.

She was later granted permanent anonymity amid fears for her life, which prevents the media identifying her or reporting where she lives and works.

In summer 2006, Marianne moved to York but gossip soon spread that she was actually Carr because of her southern accent.

She told the documentary makers: "My immediate reaction when one of the neighbours told me there was a rumour I was Maxine Carr was one of total disbelief.

"It just felt like molten lead had been poured into my stomach. It felt awful.

"When a rock was thrown through our window, I was in complete shock.

"I spent every night watching out of the bedroom window, trying to see if there were gangs approaching the house.

"I tried staring back but that made them stare even more. I tried ignoring them but still they stared.

"You should not have to justify your existence in your own home. I was doing a postgraduate research degree which was why I was working at home."

She said the vandal attacks became increasingly serious.

"Somebody put a brick through the front door.

"The sound of that was horrific, the smash was just awful. The police really stepped up the protection for me then."

She said she went round to the neighbours' homes with a community support officer to try to convince them she was not Carr.

"Unfortunately, most people just didn't believe it. They said there's no smoke without fire."

She said the third attack on her home was the worst.

"The window was double-glazed so they had to have had incredible determination to put the window through.

"The attacks were escalating in violence and that was when I decided I could not take it any more. For the sake of my health, I had to leave, and that's what I did."

Other women accused of being Maxine Carr have included a department store worker in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, who was also interviewed for the documentary, a café waitress from South Wales, a housewife from East Kilbride, a legal secretary in Scotland, a checkout worker in a Midlands Asda and a librarian on the Isle of Wight.

* First Cut: Being Maxine Carr, is on Channel 4, at 7.35pm, on Friday.