Maxine (2022) s01e03 Episode Script

1
Two ten-year-old girls
went missing yesterday evening
in Soham, Cambridgeshire.
It's Holly and Jessica from my class.
They came by our house. I I spoke to them.
I'll say I was here.
You were here.
I was in the bath.
A 28-year-old man
and a 25-year-old woman have been
taken into custody to help
the police with our enquiries.
Maxine Carr, I am arresting you
on suspicion of abduction and murder.
No, no.
They're not dead though.
How do you know if they're dead?
Oh, God!
Hello, police?
Two bodies have been found.
I want to change my statement.
I said I was in Soham that weekend
but I wasn't, I was in Grimsby.
He told me last night.
"If they arrest you, tell the truth."
So I am now
and I am sorry, I did lie
but only to stop lan being accused
when he's done nothing and
and it's better for you
to go and find the real person.
The real person?
Who's done it.
This'll be read out in front of the church.
"I suggest that we pause
for a moment of silence
in memory of these two little girls.
The heartfelt sympathy
of the whole police service
goes out to Holly's parents and brother
and to Jessica's parents
and sisters at this ghastly time.
A man and a woman are
under arrest for their murder."
Has lan ever expressed interest in children?
Yeah.
We wanna start a family.
I mean a sexual interest.
No, that's disgusting.
He says them people want
shooting, or castrating.
Like what everyone says.
See, I know him
better than anyone,
better even than his mum
and he couldn't have done
what you're saying he's done
and then carry on as normal.
He couldn't
unless you helped him.
— I didn't bloody help him.
You did.
You admit it.
You lied for him.
Because I know he's innocent.
You cleaned his house.
It's my flaming house.
I'm the cleaner!
What, am I not allowed
to clean my own house now?
And even now Sadie's in season,
you know, spreading everywhere.
What, just leave it?
What, you think
that I get on my hands and knees
and scrub something
what I knew had happened?
Well, would you?
No, I bloody wouldn't.
I haven't got anything at all
to do with this
and he ain't got nowt either.
We can tie him to the girls' clothes.
We found their bodies dumped
in a ditch, where we now know
he goes plane-spotting.
It's not nice to think of children,
you know, that you've hugged
It wasn't him.
Come on, Maxine.
You're wearing blinkers.
I'm not wearing blinkers.
- You are.
I'm not.
Well, we have to tell you
that he has now been charged
formally charged
with the two murders
of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
MMm-mm.
No!
No!
He can't have.
He can't have!
Maxine, over here!
Maxine! Maxine! Maxine!
Over here!
Maxine Ann Carr
you have been charged with conspiring
to pervert the course of justice
by lying about your whereabouts
on August the 4th
and August the 5th of this year.
You will be remanded in custody
at Holloway Prison until your trial.
"How has this happened?”
This is the question and thought
that one can see on all the faces in Soham.
It is not just the locals
who are wondering this
but the many hundreds of visitors
who have travelled from far and wide
to the small Cambridgeshire village,
to sign books of condolence.
The long queue that forms
outside St. Andrew's Church
is a quiet and sombre procession
Hey.
You seen all the flowers at the church?
Yeah, amazing.
They just keep coming, don't they?
It's like Diana.
National grief and rage.
Yeah.
You see the Attorney General's warning?
Condemn Huntley, or Carr in print
and you jeopardise the trial.
Outrageous!
Protect press freedom.
What, to publish,
"My kinky night with Maxine".
Get the feeling you want to defend her?
What, like a damsel in distress?
No, no, I just
I don't wanna see her get
torn limb from limb.
She's not the one
who's been charged with murder.
Well, Soham will be glad to see us gone.
You off back to London?
Maybe one more trip up to Grimsby.
OK, well
maybe see you next year at the trial.
Yeah. Hey, before you go.
If you were me, how would you
approach the bereaved families?
I wouldn't.
People want to hear their story.
And so, reluctant as you are
to intrude on private grief
I can offer big money.
Sorry. I wish I could help.
No, you don't.
Maxine! Hey!
We're gonna get you!
You hurt kids, we hurt you!
Child-killer!
Maxine!
lan should be standing up for you.
lan wasn't even at the court.
He's not well enough, mentally.
Oh, so he's left you to carry the can'
It's not his fault, Mum.
He's traumatised.
And no wonder being blamed
for something he's never done.
Right.
His worst nightmare come true.
Come on Shirley, let's have an interview!
My neighbour's
told the police she saw you
and lan looking in the boot
of his car and you were crying.
And there's reporters knocking
day and night!
Maxine? Maxine?
So she saw me crying.
It's not a crime to cry.
No, but the question arises,
why were you crying?
Are we to believe that you never suspected
lan could have killed Holly and Jessica?
Correct.
Not for a second.
Not in a million years.
And now?
He's being framed.
Someone else put their clothes
in that hangar.
And them in that ditch.
Well, I have to tell you that's a theory
a jury may find hard to believe.
He didn't kill them.
OK, what you will say is that all you know
the only thing he told you,
is what he told everybody else.
He talked to the girls outside the house
and then they walked away.
Correct.
Ely Cathedral has been a site
of prayer stretching back many centuries.
Today, it was a place of mourning
for the people of Soham.
Hundreds travelled
from the small village to pay their respects
and share their grief.
They were joined on the journey
by two families, their fellow townsfolk
two families who have lost beloved daughters
in this inexplicable tragedy.
“Dear lan, I think
about marrying you every day.
I love you, lan
and I miss you with my whole heart.
Your letters are what are
keeping me going in here.
Soon we'll be together again, my love."
Huntley's been transferred to prison
and declared fit to stand trial.
And by the way, his phone records show
he was trying to cheat on Carr that weekend
but had no luck.
Right.
She won't like that.
How are we doing
putting the girls in the house?
Working on forensics,
but it's been so thoroughly cleaned.
By the immaculate Miss Carr.
Who worked frantically
to remove all traces
while claiming, like him,
the girls never went inside.
We need to refute that.
We need them in there.
“Dear lan, why are
you not responding to my letters?
Is it true what my solicitor told me?
Were you trying to see another woman
on Saturday night when I was in Grimsby?"
Thank you, that was very nice.
"After everything I've done, it's not fair."
I'm worried, Lynda,
it's been two months.
Is he getting my letters?
I'll ask him when I see him, darling.
I know it's hard.
So that weekend
was it the Monday he called you
to discuss lying?
Yeah, he said
he wanted me to come home.
He says there's kids gone missing
and the thing is
The thing is?
The bad thing is
They came in our house.
They came in the house?
Yeah, they did.
One of them had a nosebleed.
You know I've had blackouts?
But I remember now
why they came into the house.
I, um
I don't know if Maxine told you that?
No, no, she she didn't, lovey.
One of them had a nosebleed.
But on the CCTV thing on the telly
they're leaving the sports centre
just before getting to you
and none of them
have a nosebleed then.
Well, no
that's because it started
when she was talking to me about Maxine.
And they say they found fibres
from the football shirts
in the boot of my car.
That's because the girls sat
on the edge of it
when I went indoors to get tissue.
So the boot was open?
Yeah.
And the bleeding didn't stop
and I said, "Come in".
I haven't done this, Mum.
Cos I remember them leaving my house.
Well, if you're adamant on that—-
- I am adamant.
I am 100% remembering them girls
leaving my house.
And would I
be physically capable
of restraining two healthy young girls?
Yeah, it's not like
you're a 15-stone guy
Well, I am 12 stone, and fit.
But yeah, question is,
was someone following them?
Don't look at me like that.
What I need
What I need from you lot
is some bloody faith
and confidence in me.
I am telling you the truth, Mum,
as best I can, what I remember.
I don't ever want you to think
I might have done this because I haven't!
I could never hurt anybody.
I never have, I never will.
Finally, I am telling you this
about them coming into the house.
I weren't gonna, but I felt
that's the risk I had to take
just to put your mind at rest.
Thank you.
Don't say anything, Mum
it will give the police time to
counteract everything I'm saying
and build a case against me.
The girls are in the house.
The papers are calling it a suicide attempt?
"She's guilty and she can't live with it."
It's my eating disorder, I can't help it.
Well, yes, there should be
some, uh sympathy.
I'm like Princess Diana.
So things have changed a little bit.
The prosecution have tape recordings
of you talking to lan's mother, Lynda,
over the phone.
What?
That can't be legal, recording
a private conversation, that's shocking!
Well, it is legal, I'm afraid
and they have you admitting
to knowing the girls were in the house.
So as well as conspiring
to pervert the course of justice
you're also being charged
with assisting an offender.
But I haven't assisted an offender.
You cleaned the house.
Hid the traces of two dead young girls,
girls you knew
making you, in the eyes of many,
as bad as him or even worse.
He's not bad.
They went in the house.
They went out again.
On their merry way.
Really?
Because if they didn't-—-
— They did.
Your life together is over.
Acknowledge he's done what he's done
and distance yourself from him.
And you can still survive.
- lan's not a
He's not interested in young girls.
He's got no whatsit.
No previous, no history.
That's not true.
What I'm about to tell you
can't be used in court against him.
Enquiries through Humberside police
and social services
are revealing several cases
against him involving sex
with underage girls whilst in his twenties.
These are girls he groomed.
One as young as 13,
and allegations of rape.
He took a girl for a walk in an orchard
where she says he sexually assaulted her.
When he was 24
and she was 11.
Let people see.
He's the monster. Not you.
I think I've made a huge mistake, Mum.
I thought he was the best thing
that ever happened to me.
Tell anyone who asks
It's over.
She wrote to the prison governor.
It was read out to me.
"I no longer wish to have
any communication with Mr lan Huntley."
Oh, lan, that's all you need.
Yeah.
What a fucking bitch.
So we now have fibre transfers
to and from the football shirts.
And thanks to Pat,
pollen from the deposition site
on Huntley's shoes,
car footwells, petrol can
Plus chalk from the track
caught under the car
and the fact that he changed
all four tyres on the Monday
that'll speak to the jury.
I'll share duties with Karim
in court.
- What?
Well, how did he do it?
He's on suicide watch.
Huntley's taken an overdose.
He sees this as his only option.
Testament to the work we're all doing.
So we keep doing it
and pray he pulls through.
He can't escape justice.
/t's a short journey
for Huntley from the hospital back
to Woodhill Prison, where he will again
be put on suicide watch.
He will spend the next number
of days and nights in the hospital wing.
The home secretary has demanded
that the Prison Service
It's all over the news.
Have you seen it?
Oh love, it's terrible.
Typical him, Mum,
trying to take the easy way out
leaving me to carry the can.
Too bad, lan.
Didn't work.
Tough fucking luck!
I'll see you in court.
- Thanks for meeting me.
- Still waiting for that scoop?
Eve of the trial, emotions running high,
maybe a chink opens up.
Mmm, and then you pounce, yeah?
That's my job.
Judge rejected the defence claim,
they've already been convicted by the media.
Mm, but he still criticised them.
Them?
Us.
So the editors just ignore
the sub judice laws, do they?
No, not totally.
And all this stuff coming out now
about Huntley's past in Humberside
we're sitting on it, till after the trial.
The authorities are gonna get roasted.
They weren't communicating.
Police, social services, schools.
How did he get a job
as a school caretaker with his history?
No actual convictions.
—- There was one though
for burglary.
I mean, that should have flagged up
and barred him from the job.
All those other complaints though.
I mean, all those girls.
Mmm, I mean, needs a public enquiry.
Needs a whole new system.
You're not coming down to cover the trial?
I'm not allowed to.
I'm a witness.
Of course, you met them.
I talked to his parents.
They showed me this Christmas card
Maxine sent them after she dumped him.
"I shared my life, my bed
and all my dreams with that man.
I have been living a lie."
Wow. Tragic heroine.
Rehearsal for the courtroom.
You are required to be impartial.
You need to try this case on the evidence
that you hear or see in this courtroom
uninfluenced by anything
you've read, heard, or seen elsewhere.
Now, a warning to media.
Report this trial dispassionately
or jeopardise it.
Do not describe emotion.
The Crown may present
it's opening statement.
It may not be disputed
that Carr provided a false account
of Huntley's movements that Sunday night,
but we have to prove
that she did so knowing, or believing
that he had a hand
in the Killing of the girls.
She lied and covered up for him.
Forensically cleaned the house of the man
who murdered two ten-year-old girls.
The man who dumped
and burned their bodies in a ditch.
You say there was
significant press presence
hundreds of reporters every day.
Did this put a strain
on the caretaker at the school?
He did seem stressed.
He said he felt harassed
by the press and
by the daily press conferences
the police were holding.
And one time asked me
if they could be held elsewhere.
And you appointed him?
Correct.
Would you say he struck you as
a very good candidate when you appointed him?
Yes, he did.
And that's a decision
I live with every day.
That's all.
Thank you.
All done.
Love you.
- Love you.
How did Miss Carr seem
when you spoke to her?
Smiling
uh cheerful, friendly.
Eager to help.
And what about Mr Huntley?
He was very wary.
He refused to have his photo taken.
She was much more convincing.
Happy to pose with the card
Holly had made her.
So when she told me
she was in the house, in the bath
when the girls came by
it was easy to believe her.
God. I can't do anything right.
"She was too close to the kids."
"They loved her too much."
Ooh. Sorry!
And that reporter!
The press, they sweet-talk you,
they manipulate you to get what they want.
You know, they say I'm bad.
They're worse.
You're doing well in there.
Keeping calm.
- Used to it.
You know, "Be nice, look nice.
No one likes you when you're mad.
So swallow it".
You should be prepared for the discoveries
of the bodies and the pathologist's evidence.
It could be quite upsetting.
Should I not get upset?
No, it's fine to get upset.
Shows you care.
You the jury have been provided
with evidence packs.
Could you please refer
to the pathologist's report
by Dr Nat Cary.
As you have told the court
the bodies, exposed for so long,
were too badly decomposed
even for you, an experienced pathologist,
to determine the cause of death
but the skulls and skeletons revealed
no signs of blunt force trauma
or stabbing, which leaves us with?
Something involving interference
with the mechanism of breathing.
Such as?
Strangulation, or smothering.
And as for sexual assault?
Due to decomposition
I cannot, from the physical findings,
confirm or refute that possibility.
Thank you, Dr Cary.
Er, my Lord
my client would be grateful
for a very short break.
Very well, Mr Coward
this is the last time Mr Huntley will be
permitted to disrupt the court.
The court will reconvene in 15 minutes.
Should possible causes
of death not include drowning?
Yes. It should be on the list.
Thank you.
I'm going to put to you my client's account
of what actually happened
on 4th of August last year.
At the material time,
Holly Wells had a nosebleed
and because it wouldn't stop
she and Jessica
and the defendant Mr Huntley
went up to the bathroom
where the girls sat
on the edge of the bath
while he cooled pieces of toilet paper
under the tap in the basin
and handed them to Holly.
And on one of his turns he slipped
and it seems he may well have banged
into her and she went backwards.
He has no recollection of a bang,
but he does remember a splash.
When Holly went into the bath
which had roughly
18 inches of water in it
because Mr Huntley was going
to wash the dog
Jessica started screaming
"You pushed her, you pushed her!"
He then turned towards Jessica
putting his hand, or hands out
his memory is over her mouth,
to stop her screaming.
He let her go and she went to the ground.
He then lifted Holly out of the bath
and looked for signs of breathing
and found none.
He turned his attention
towards Jessica
looked for signs of breathing
and found none.
That is the whole account.
I don't believe a word of it.
As an experienced pathologist
I find it wholly implausible
that Jessica could have been
smothered to death as described.
And as to the suggested drowning of Holly
I measured the bath overnight.
The overflow is eleven inches.
Even if that was blocked
the depth you mentioned
of 18 is unrealistic.
And at a depth of barely a foot
total immersion of the nose and mouth
through a passive accident
is very unlikely.
And the nose, we are told, is bleeding
and she is fully clothed.
So there would be blood in
the water soaking the clothes.
Even extremely diluted,
this would be detectable.
None was. And why no rescue?
Accidental drownings in bathrooms
tend to be solitary affairs
because, by definition
human beings rescue one another.
What's he like? Trying to get off
murder with a story like that.
"It was an accident,
it was only, uh"
What's it?
Manslaughter.
The evidence suggests
that if the bodies had been
less decomposed
it might be clearer what happened.
Some people may blame you for that
because your lies delayed his arrest.
But his arrest didn't lead to the bodies.
They were found by accident.
And he'd never have admitted
where they were, so
Not as thick as I look.
I was knelt down on the doorstep,
brushing Sadie
directly behind the car.
I heard two voices
and I stood up to look
and there was two girls
in football tops stood there.
They asked me how Miss Carr was
and I found that quite funny
because I weren't used to
hearing Maxine referred to in that way.
I noticed Holly put her hand up to her face
and there was some blood on it
and under her nose.
I asked if she would like some tissue
to which she replied, "Yes, please".
So what did you do?
I said, "Plonk your bums on there
and I'll get you some".
Could you repeat that?
A lot of us didn't get that.
Yes, erm, I said, "Plonk your bums on there".
"Plonk your bums there"?
Yes. On the rim of my boot.
What did you do with Sadie?
Secured her in the downstairs toilet.
You came out and gave the tissue to Holly.
Did it do the trick?
Sorry?
Did it, er, stop the bleeding?
No.
So what happened next?
It was threatening rain
and if anything it was getting worse.
So, I I
I said would you like to come inside
and put some wet tissue on the nose.
What did they say?
They said yes.
You returned home
after depositing the bodies.
Then what did you do?
Had several cigarettes.
And what were you thinking?
"What have I done?"
Have you ever told Maxine
what you've told us here today?
I wanted to.
But I couldn't.
You approached Holly's father,
Kevin Wells
near the school three days
after she disappeared.
You said, "I'm sorry, Kev,
I didn't know it was your daughter.
I hope they come home soon".
What should we call that?
An apology? Inexcusable?
Yes.
Like this story you've come up with
to fit the evidence.
What does a ten-year-old girl do
when she's got a nosebleed
and is a few hundred yards from home?
I can't speak for the mind
of ten-year-old girls.
Go into a stranger's house?
Did you tell them that Maxine was inside?
— No.
You knew as school caretaker
you were forbidden
from having schoolchildren in your house?
Yes.
— And yet you invited them in.
Yes.
You have been telling lies from start
to finish in this case, haven't you?
You say you somehow suffocated Jessica
trying to stop her from screaming.
Screaming because you were murdering Holly?
— No.
And, and when you accidentally
knocked her into the bath
why couldn't you just
reach out and help her?
That would've been the normal--
- In these circumstances
it is very rational
to know what you were doing
in those circumstances it is not so rational,
believe me, I know.
You can get very angry,
can't you, Mr Huntley?
That's because you
you have your opinion.
Did you lose your temper with one
of the girls that Sunday evening?
Did you become the assertive individual
that you became just now?
You lied to the journalists,
you lied to the police
Yes, sir, I did.
You now admit you knew a lot.
The girls had been in the house,
which he'd cleaned.
The car too.
There was bedding
in the washing machine.
He was the last person to see them
and he wanted you to lie
and yet you claim you had no suspicions?
Suspicions he had a woman round maybe.
But no, not that.
You claim that all the guilt should be his
to bear and you should go scot-free?
I know exactly what I've done, sir.
And I cannot be blamed for what that thing
in the box has done to me, or those children!
It is noticeable, Miss Carr,
how much you embellished your lies
to the press and the police
to make them more convincing.
Not only were you in the house,
but you were in the bath
and "wished I had popped out
and had a chat with the girls".
I do wish, though, I had been there.
I'll be feeling very guilty, sir,
for a long, long time
that if I was there I could
have stopped them from dying.
You were so obsessed by him
and so obsessed with preserving
your relationship
and your home and your future
that you had to divert attention
away from him.
Only because I truly believed
he was innocent.
Mr Latham has suggested to you
that by that Tuesday evening,
the 6th, you had worked it out
that the children were dead?
No.
— And that lan Huntley was responsible?
No.
Now, let's just examine that.
Did you sleep in the same bed
as lan Huntley on that Tuesday night?
Yes.
— And all the following days?
Yeah.
Would you have been
in the same bed
if you believed for a moment
that he had killed those children?
I wouldn't be in the same house.
No further questions.
The court will take a break
and reconvene in 30 minutes.
You should fucking hang! You bastard!
Given you admit you conspired with lan
to lie and he's already pleaded guilty
to that charge. I have to advise you
as your counsel that perhaps you should too.
But I wasn't perverting
the course of justice.
I was trying to stop the police
from wrongly accusing him, I thought.
OK, but you do realise
the jury are likely to find you guilty?
Of that charge, yeah, OK.
If they do, they do.
But not assisting an offender.
Not cleaning up after knowing
he'd killed the girls because I didn't.
And I don't wanna be damned
for what I never done.
Miss Carr, Maxine
feels guilty every day,
wishing she had been there that day
and saved those children's lives.
- Is it not now time to release her
- her own woman, if you think
she has continued
right through her evidence to tell lies
that she is not being frank
with you
you have to ask why.
Defendants rise.
How do you find the defendant,
lan Kevin Huntley
on the charge of the murder
of Jessica Chapman?
Guilty.
The murder of Holly Wells?
Guilty.
How do you find
the defendant, Maxine Ann Carr
on the charge of conspiracy
to pervert the course of justice?
Guilty.
How do you find
the defendant, Maxine Ann Carr
on the charge of assisting an offender
in the case of Jessica Chapman?
Not guilty.
In the case of Holly Wells?
Not guilty.
Forget her. She doesn't matter.
We will take a short adjournment
and sentencing will commence
tomorrow morning.
To the parents of Holly and Jessica
your grief at the loss of such bright
and life-enhancing daughters
cannot be imagined
and cannot be shared.
Those of us who have
been compelled to listen
to so dispiriting and merciless a tale
will have had some glimpse
of what you have suffered
and continue to suffer.
Our thoughts are with you all.
Hi, Principal Gilbert.
Just a few words,
now that the verdict's in?
No. Thank you.
How have the students
and community reacted to it?
The girls' siblings go to the schoal,
can you comment on how they are coping?
The families must still have questions.
— I'd rather just get on with it.
Right, there we go. That's everything.
I'll get it.
Brian Farmer's phone, this is Millie.
Hi Millie, can I speak to your dad?
Here he is.
Thanks.
—- For you.
Thank you.
Hello.
Hey, it's Jane.
I'm in Soham. But I don't, I don't feel
—- Sorry, hang on a sec
Have you got everything?
Yep, bye.
Bye. Hey, hey, hey, hey.
Don't stay up too late.
I will
Sorry.
You don't feel what?
Right.
I'm supposed to be knocking
on the parents' doors to offer them
a million quid for their stories.
Well, it's not for me
to tell you what to do, is it?
No.
But you know they don't want money.
I know but--
— They want their daughters back.
And they'll never know
what really happened to them.
Would you want to know
if it was your daughter?
The truth?
Yeah.
Yeah.
The whole truth?
Every detail?
Yeah.
Just to be there with her.
Yeah.
Maxine? Maxine?
I know it's you.
One question and I'll leave you alone.
Did you know?
Did you know he'd killed them?
No comment.
Mum!