By Roger Pearson
Allegations that newspapers broke the terms of the injunction
banning the press from reporting the whereabouts and appearance of
Maxine Carr have been passed to the Attorney General, the High Court
was told.
This was revealed as the High Court decided to throw a permanent cloak of anonymity over Carr, for her own protection.
Lawyers
for Carr asked Mr Justice Eady to make permanent a temporary court
order he granted last year, banning any details of her whereabouts,
appearance or movements being published since her release from jail.
Granting the order the judge said: “It is necessary to protect life and limb and psychological health.”
Earlier,
Carr’s counsel Edward Fitzgerald QC had rounded on press treatment of
his client and claimed some papers had breached the earlier injunction.
Carr
served 21 months in prison after being convicted of conspiracy to
pervert the course of justice. She was found guilty of providing a
false alibi for Ian Huntley, her boyfriend, who killed schoolgirls
Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
The injunction bans publication
of any details which could reveal Carr’s new identity, including any
description of where she lives and the nature of her work.
The press was split on the ruling. The Daily Express described it as “abominable”
while The Independent backed it and accused sections of the press of “stoking the flames of mob justice”.
- The injunction comes at a time when there are reports that
Carr’s mother, Shirley Capp, is in negotiations to sell her daughter’s
story to North East publisher Mirage.
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