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.

MC had already lost her job as a teaching assistant.

That's exactly what I was thinking. She applied for it before the murders and didn't get it.

Watching it now. She’s is too complicit in helping him cover his tracks and for that she deserved time in prison.

the female reporter is vile too

I don't think she did I think she's not very bright and she was abused and couldn't see the woods for the trees.

Off topic but I was the same age as the killers of Jamie Bulger and that one really hit me. I remember there being some debate about whether at their age they could have known it was wrong and understood their actions.

I was absolutely indignant. I was so upset, I wanted to tell all the police that '10 year olds really did know because I was 10yrs old and me and all my classmates knew'. My Mum had a real job trying to calm me down about it.

It's James, not Jamie. His family never called him Jamie. His killers were tried as adults, which I don't think would happen now.

I hope you are not just drawing that conclusion from a drama on TV because it sounds that way from your post.

It is well documented that she lied to give him an alibi and scrubbed the house afterwards.

as for the press - the female reporter is probably representative of lots of journalists at that time (phone hacking etc). That is more to the point I was making, but I appreciate it doesn’t come across like that in my original post.

I know this is a side topic.

10 year olds are, as a result of this case, always tried as adults. Doli incapax used to protect 10 - 14 year olds as it was possible they did not understand the seriousness of what they had done.

If an adult with a mental age of 10 goes to court then allowances can be made, but not for a child of 10.

One part of my thinking she wasn't aware he had killed the girls is the flimsiness of her alibi. She was very visible in grimsby at the time, on nights out, seeing people, apparently even kissing someone. There was quite widespread CCTV at the time.

I know she wasn't the brightest, but I can imagine her thinking 'well, I don't believe he would have done that but the police are asking a few too many questions. Probably because of his past. If I say I was with him, it should get them off his back'. However, she couldn't have believed that her demonstrably false alibi would have withstood a murder investigation.

Which is possibly where not being very bright came in?

We're one of the few countries that does try children as adults. Now we have more knowledge about brain development, etc it is really problematic treating children as adults. Doli incapax used to protect children aged 10-14 before the trial in the James Bulger case. I did jury service on a case last year where two historic charges were removed from the indictment as doli incapax came into play.