Maxine limbers up for a life of freedom

Strolling along with a group of fellow inmates, she didn't appear to have a care in the world.

Dressed in red sweatshirt and black jogging bottoms, this was Maxine Carr yesterday morning after a gentle workout.

Only the presence of uniformed warders provided a reminder that the women dressed in gym gear were actually prisoners.

For Carr - arms folded about her sparse frame - life behind bars is shortly coming to an end. Judging by her relaxed appearance and slight smile, freedom holds little fear for Soham killer Ian Huntley's exgirlfriend.

Carr, 27, will be released in less than three weeks. An operation to protect her will then be launched at a cost of £1million a year.

Her behaviour recently suggests that she is already planning for the big day. Carr, who provided a false alibi for the murderer of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, was spotted at the weekend sitting with a friend in the sunny garden of Foston Hall Prison in Derbyshire.

As she soaked up the sun, she flicked through a copy of a women's magazine with the headline 'New Hair, New You' - perhaps pondering a fresh image for her new life.

While at Foston Hall, dubbed Sunny Hall by some inmates because of its relaxed regime, Carr has been under extra supervision whenever away from her 'cell', a large curtained room in the jail's health care centre which has a TV and ensuite shower.

Fears of revenge attacks will continue when she is released on May 17 after serving half of her threeanda-half-year sentence for conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

Carr has been told that it is not safe for her to return to her home town of Grimsby and at least three safe houses have already been set aside for her.