In a move that has been condemned by some viewers, Channel 5 has been airing its true crime drama about Maxine Carr, with the one-off series taking over the primetime 9pm slot for three nights in a row this week.
It's now been 20 years since the sleepy Cambridgeshire village of Soham was thrust into the media spotlight, after the disappearance of school girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. A huge scale search operation was launched to find the best friends, who failed to return home after going out together.
TV appeals were made from locals as the girls' families prayed for their safe return to home. But it was one of the people who gave an interview to news reporters, school caretaker Ian Huntley, who was responsible for the girls' death, with him being caught after the remains of Manchester United tops Holly and Jessica were wearing, were found in a bin at Soham College, where he worked.
READ MORE: Where is Ian Huntley now? Maxine Carr drama puts killer's crimes back in TV spotlight
Classroom assistant Carr, who worked at Holly and Jessica's school, was Huntley's girlfriend at the time and gave him a false alibi for the night of the girls' disappearance, as well as infamously referring to the children in the past tense during an interview on BBC Look East, as people searched around the clock for the youngsters.
Both Huntley and Carr. were convicted and sent to prison, with Huntley serving a sentence of a minimum of 40 years and Carr sentenced to three and a half years behind bars for conspiring with Huntley to pervert the course of justice.
What happened to Maxine Carr?
Carr served 21 months in prison and was given the protection of a new identity upon her release, after authorities granted her an anonymity order. Carr, who will now be 45-years-old, is one of only a handful of prisoners to be afforded this protection and the injunction is so strict that even details or her hairstyle or job are forbidden from being published.
A teaser for the second episode of Maxine, which goes out on Channel 5 on Tuesday night read: ""As the police investigation intensifies, Maxine Carr becomes increasingly drawn into the media frenzy as Ian helps with the search. When Maxine organises for herself and Ian to do a live television interview, she risks her own alibi when someone she met in Grimsby on the night of the girls' disappearance sees her on TV."
READ NEXT:
*How many episodes of Maxine are there?
*Channel 5's Maxine cast as true crime drama starts
*Benidorm star 'confuses' viewers with role in Channel 5's Maxine
