Did Maxine Carr know?

[ahunf]

I assumed she did. I know it's not based on fact but after watching the Maxine programme I thought maybe she didn't know. The "no comment" at the very end made me think.

I think she knew on some level.
But she lied for him and then it went to far and she was trapped.

He told her quite soon about the other rapes he was accused of and she still stayed with him.

I think part of the reason people weren’t very willing to consider she had been so controlled at the time was that it’s only in the years since that various exes of Huntley have come forward and bravely shared their experiences of how absolutely dreadful he was - abusive, terribly violent, etc. I think at the time it all came out we only had Maxine’s word and now we can see the bigger picture. Although I do think if I was the parent of either of the girls I would still feel absolute rage that she hindered the investigation.

Did the neighbour report this at the time? I can't imagine hearing that and not calling the police?

End of story.

At the time, I assumed she did not know. She was away that weekend in Grimsby, and this was not a premediated killing.
However, when I watched a recent documentary (not the drama), it is clear from the police that she talked about the girls in the past tense, when at that time, no one knew they were dead.
She was made to clean the house, or she saw Huntley had washed the sheets, but in my opinion, it was talking about the girls in the past tense, makes me think that she probably did know, or suspect.
I could have sympathy, if she had lied to police in front of Huntley, but then spoken to the police by herself later. But she did not do that. She lied by stating she was there that weekend, what they had for dinner, etc, thus also giving a false alibi, when she was in fact away.

Agree with this.

I agree about the press absolutely hounding her.
The Sun got hold of a cctv image of her in the pub miles away with her friends and the headline was something like
“Carr was laughing in pub with friends while Holly and Jessica were murdered”
Insinuating that she knew at the time what was happening and was culpable. That she knew it was happening and was laughing about it. Very clever to not outright say it, but linking those ideas in people’s minds.

I agree with others that she was abused and trying to protect Huntley about “unfair accusations” he’d probably filled her head with nonsense about how people “were out to get him”. I bet he had a very “us against the rest of the world” narrative. I think I’m back of mind she wondered, but dismissed any thoughts that he might have done it.

Not on the same scale but I was in an abusive relationship for 3 years and it was years after I left that I realised my ex had a gambling addiction. Looking back all the signs were there but like PP said about drug addiction, I naively believed his lies. I was also frightened to question anything off invade he kicked off again.

@WeAreTheHeroes exactly this, misogyny.

I heard someone on the radio make the comparison to Colin Pitchfork, which I hadn't considered before. He raped and murdered two girls. The police asked all the men in the area to submit DNA so they could be ruled out, and Pitchfork convinced another man to give a sample pretending to be him.

In other words that man lied and hindered the investigation - much like Carr. He was sent to prison for it, but I bet hardly anyone even knows his name, and he certainly won't be in need of a secret identify as a result of a press campaign.

As stated upthread, the fact that she talked in the past tense in meaningless. She was being asked about when she taught them as a TA, it's natural to use the past tense. If someone asks me, say, "What did you think of X when you worked with her a couple of years ago".I'm going to answer something like "She was really nice, I loved her jokes". I'm not going to answer that sort of question in the present tense, but it doesn't mean that X is dead.

Hindley and Brady have always been good copy for the press, and I think when Huntley was accused and Carr was arrested also some of the papers were desperate to make her Hindley Mark II. There was certainly an element of misogyny in it, because the female element in their view made the Moors murders so much more interesting to write about. They so enjoyed slavering over the awful details of what Hindley did and publishing that horrendous photo of her, and they wanted to recreate all that with Carr. They heavily downplayed the fact that Carr's evidence played a major part in securing Huntley's conviction.

She was terrified of him and he beat her regularly. She was s victim of coercive control. I believe she knew what he had done but was afraid to tell the police or the court in case he was acquited and killed her.

Even if she didn't know (which I don't believe), her part in the case should not be hushed up. Others in the same boat need to see this case, so they can recognise if something similar happens to them.

And those considering helping their criminal partners should see justice being done to Maxine so that they are encourage to do the right thing themselves.

I think that as a society we understand DV and coercive control much better compared to twenty years ago, or at least it's more talked about. The abusive relationship between Carr and Huntley was regarded as more peripheral to the case, if people cared about it at all, rather than of key significance.
I mean, there are still people in this thread who look past it and ask 'well why didn't she XYZ', when the truth is that some courses of action are very possible, easy even, when you are not in thrall to an abuser, not afraid of having everything ripped away from you etc - but next to impossible if you are. And indeed she might not even have considered them.

I agree with PPs who say that she was afraid of Huntley, desperately wanted him to be innocent, desperately wanted their life together - plus she knew and cared about those girls which would make it extra hard for her to accept that he had anything to do with their deaths. I think she simply wasn't able to think through the clues in the way someone on the outside could.

For some women in abusive relationships the threat of murder isn’t enough to make them defy these men do I doubt the threat of jail would work either.
Her part was at most lying to The Police, which was wrong and she deserved to be punished for, but she doesn’t deserve to be treated as if she killed those girls herself

I don't think she is evil as such, just very unintelligent. I think the same about Karen Matthews.

I know Maxine has changed her name but I do wonder, would you recognize her if you saw her out and about.
She is quite unusual looking

I can tell you that we had an abuser in the family . We he was arrested the first reaction was denial . You cannot believe that they have done this . When he confessed my legs went to jelly . There were no signs that he was a wrong un .

I think it's about time she was allowed to get on with her life. I'm not sure what your post is getting at. Are you trying to encourage others to identify and out her?

She knew, she might not have wanted to believe it, but she knew.

Talking about them in the past tense implies she knew something.

Agree that it would appear a combination of low intelligence and an abusive relationship is definitely in play, but whenever she was interviewed and used that tense I think she must have known at that point, unless Huntley had been saying to her that they were definitely killed by someone and they together had been talking in these terms/tense so it came out to the interviewer.

But that part seems to stick out to me.

No not at all am I encouraging and you're right about letting her live her life in peace.
I'll report my post.

What do you mean by "should see justice being done"? She was arrested, charged and sentenced. Nothing was hushed up, rather the reverse - she was the subject of way more publicity than, really, anyone convicted of a comparable offence.

Have you seen the comments upthread about the fact that she was talking in the past tense because she was asked about stuff that happened in the past? Do you accept that?

“Do [I] accept that?”

Yes, admittedly I hadn’t read them until after I’d posted and agree that it’s a way of asking that would also potentially illicit that response. Especially if there’s a lower IQ at play it’d be like mimicking or fitting into the given context. Can also appreciate that the tense could also denote the historical interactions when she was TA, which I hadn’t considered before (as I haven’t spent a lot of time examining it and also still need to actually watch the drama, so only going on various programmes/YouTube on the topic as well as recollections of coverage at the time)

Its hard to gauge tone in the written word and apologies if I’ve misread but you seem quite forceful in how you’re asking me though, as if I’m somehow incorrect that it’s unusual or stuck out, whereas I believe that it was this interview and her use of past tense that raised suspicion at the time and has been used as a primary example ever since to happened to support the notion that she did know. Do you accept that?

Maybe she mimicked the interviewer’s tense but conversely maybe that just gave an open door/permission for the correct tense to come out. As far as I know, no one really knows except her and H.

I agree with this. An abused, terrified woman was stitched up like a kipper by the gutter press.