Maxine Carr gives birth to her first child - but baby will never know true identity of its mother

• Anonymity order will extend to Carr's child

Updated: 10:14 EDT, 13 January 2014

Maxine Carr has become a mother – but her baby can never know her real name or how she protected Soham murderer Ian Huntley.

Carr, 34, gave birth to her first child earlier this year at the safe house where she is living under a secret identity.

The former teaching assistant, who provided a false alibi for boyfriend Huntley after he murdered Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, is believed to have married her child’s father.

New identity: Maxine Carr, left, ex-girlfriend of Soham killer Ian Huntley, will have the anonymity of her new child protected

Her husband is understood to be aware of her shocking past despite the fact a court order has given Carr lifelong anonymity.

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.

Carr served 21 months in jail for providing Huntley with a false alibi after he murdered Holly and Jessica, both ten, in 2002.

On her release she became one of just four former UK prisoners to be given secret identities, along with child killer Mary Bell and James Bulger’s murderers Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. Police protection and a new identity for Carr are thought to have cost the taxpayer millions.

Victims: Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman went missing in August 2002

She is said to have miscarried twice since 2006 after becoming pregnant by different lovers.

But it was reported in 2008 that she was preparing to marry a partner who was aware of her past.

Carr was the girlfriend of school caretaker Huntley when he was arrested soon after the bodies of Holly and Jessica were found. They had been missing for 13 days.

Huntley eventually admitted that the girls had died in his house after he had invited them in, but said their deaths were accidental.

He had told them that Carr was in the house, but she had actually gone to Grimsby to visit relatives.

Although Carr was not implicated in the murder, she gave Huntley  a false alibi, claiming that she  had been with him at the time  of the killings, which delayed the police investigation. In 2003, she was convicted of perverting the course of justice, and sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

A new court order may be necessary to specifically protect her child’s identity – similar to the order which preserves the anonymity of Bell’s child.

Bell, convicted of killing two boys, received a new identity on her release from jail, and after giving birth in 1984 secured an additional order to protect her daughter.

The child was initially granted anonymity only until her 18th birthday, but that was later extended indefinitely.

It is believed that Bell’s daughter did not know her mother’s identity until it was revealed by reporters. Thompson and Venables killed toddler James after abducting him from a Liverpool shopping centre in February 1993.

They were just ten years old at the time, and were sentenced to indefinite imprisonment, but were released in 2001.

Both were given new identities, and have a large number of restrictions on their movements, including a ban on contacting each other.

Last year Venables was given a second prison sentence for downloading child pornography. And in May this year, his identity was changed once again after a ‘serious breach’ in the security of the identity he had been using.

Huntley, 37, remains in jail, where he is serving a life sentence for the Soham murders. He has been attacked by fellow inmates at least twice, and is also thought to have made a suicide attempt in 2006.

An anonymous life: The secret world of those given new identities

Lifelong anonymity orders, like that given to Maxine Carr, are relatively rare - there are no more than a handful currently in place.

They are imposed only in the most high-profile cases, where it is almost certain that criminals released from jail will attract intense media attention, and possibly the threat of violence from members of the public.

One reason they are so rare is that most people convicted of the most horrific crimes end up spending their whole lives behind bars, so the majority of those given new identities committed their crimes when they were children and therefore attracted more lenient sentences.

Mary Bell: Convicted of manslaughter aged 11

Mary Bell was a famous early recipient of an indefinite anonymity order.

She was convicted in 1968 of killing two young boys before her twelfth birthday.

Despite the gruesome nature of the killings, she was convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, having been diagnosed with a mental illness.

After 12 years in prison, during which time her mother had repeatedly sold stories about her to the press, Bell was released in 1980 and given a new identity.

When she gave birth to a daughter in 1984, the child was also granted anonymity until her 18th birthday, later extended indefinitely.

It is believed that Bell's daughter did not know her mother's identity until it was revealed by reporters.

Robert Thompson and Jon Venables killed toddler James Bulger after abducting him from a Liverpool shopping centre in February 1993.

They were just 10 years old at the time, and were sentenced to indefinite imprisonment, but were released in 2001.

Both were given new identities, and have a large number of restrictions on their movements - for example, they are not allowed to contact each other.

Robert Thompson, left, and Jon Venables killed James Bulger in 1993

Venables returned to headlines last year when he was given a second prison sentence for downloading child pornography.

In May this year, his identity was changed once again after a 'serious breach' in the security of the identity he had been using.

Maxine Carr is unusual among those given new identities, as she is not a convicted killer.

However, her association with Huntley caused such public revulsion that she too was granted an indefinite anonymity order for her own protection.