FILMED with her dyed red hair brushed back from her pale face as she holds out the card written to her by one of her classroom favourites - this is one of the images which will forever stay in the minds of people who have watched the horrors of Soham unfold on their television sets.

Maxine Carr has become one of the most infamous women in Britain, as instantly recognisable as the blonde-haired, black and white grainy image of Myra Hindley or the huge glasses and dark looks of Rosemary West.

As such, it is unlikely Carr will ever be left to enjoy any kind of anonymity again - unless it is ordered by a court.

Certainly no one could have guessed that Carr, the product of a broken home in Grimsby, and who had dreams of being a teacher, would one day end up embroiled in one of the most infamous crimes of the past 100 years.

Carr was an immature young woman who was popular with pupils at St Andrew's Primary School, in Soham, where she worked as a temporary classroom assistant.

But, according to teaching staff, she got too friendly with some of the youngsters. That friendliness was to lead Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman to their deaths when they were enticed into her home by her fiance, Ian Huntley.

Geoff Fisher, St Andrew's headteacher, said: "There is one thing that is always going to be there. The only reason they went anywhere near that house is because they knew her."

Carr's parents, Alfred and Shirley Capp, split up when she was two. Carr and her older sister, Hayley, went to live in the village of Keelby, near Grimsby.

Home was a council house decked out with memorabilia of Shirley's beloved Elvis Presley.

Carr would later change her surname because she hated her father, a farm labourer who still lives in the Grimsby area.

Initially, she called herself Maxine Benson, but later changed her name by deed poll to Carr.

She went to Healing Comprehensive, where Ian Huntley had also been a pupil.

After leaving school she went to work with her mother at the local Bluecrest fish processing plant. But, despite a lack of qualifications, her dream was to get into education and become a teacher.

In February 1999, she met Huntley at a Grimsby nightclub called Hollywoods, and three years later she and Huntley decided to make a new life in Soham and he became a caretaker at Soham Village College.

She got a temporary job as a classroom assistant at the neighbouring St Andrew's Primary School.

Geoff Fisher said: "She was a volunteer in a year one class and she did extremely well.

"We asked her if she could help out in the reception class up to Easter, and again the teacher was delighted with the way she worked."

Carr was offered the post on a temporary, one-term basis - but her immaturity soon began to show.

When a permanent post came up, the job was given to someone with more maturity, leaving Carr feeling "very disappointed".

Holly made Carr a leaving card, which she showed to reporters as the search for the girls went on. She spoke highly of the youngsters when talking to journalists and police and when she gave evidence.

It is the image of her holding up Holly's card, talking to reporters which will be hard for people to forgive, knowing what she knew.

Carr could be released from jail in only 30 days' time if she applies for Home Secretary David Blunkett's electronic tagging scheme, which frees well-behaved, non-dangerous inmates up to 135 days early.

Even without this concession, her automatic release date will be in five months, which will leave millions of people deeply angry.

After five months - approximately on May 17 - she will have served half of her three-and-a-half-year sentence because she has already served 16 months on remand.

With the Home Detention Curfew scheme, prisoners apply for early release and Prison Service staff carry out a risk assessment. This process takes 30 days, so Carr could be released at that point, wearing an electronic tag and ordered to observe a curfew.

But tagging the former classroom assistant could bring problems for police and probation officers.

She will be forced to stay at one address - otherwise an alarm would be triggered - which makes her vulnerable to vigilante attacks.

The chances of vigilante attacks, both inside prison and outside, will be uppermost in her mind.

Carr told jurors at the Old Bailey that she had even been dubbed "Myra Hindley Mark Two" by fellow inmates at Holloway Prison and put in a segregation unit for her protection.

Even when she is released, it is hard to imagine her living anywhere near a normal life without protection of anonymity, and without it she may have to flee abroad.

She could follow in the footsteps of notorious North-East child-killer Mary Bell, and the killers of Jamie Bulger - Robert Thompson and Jon Venables - who sparked huge controversy by successfully gaining new identities.

In the case of Mary Bell, who murdered youngsters Martin Brown and Brian Howe in Newcastle when she was aged only ten, anonymity was also given to her daughter.

Perhaps a woman noted for her immaturity, who has protested her innocence, will naively believe people will soon forget her part in a crime that horrified the nation.

She will soon learn otherwise.