Carr's mother convicted of intimidating Soham witness

Maxine Carr's mother was found guilty of intimidating a witness in the Soham murder trial yesterday and warned she could face jail.

Maxine Carr's mother was found guilty of intimidating a witness in the Soham murder trial yesterday and warned she could face jail.

Just one month after her daughter was released from prison, Shirley Capp, 61, was advised by Judge John Reddihough that he would consider "all the options", including a custodial sentence.

The jury took just over four hours to find Capp guilty by a majority of 10-2 of one charge of intimidating a witness.

Sheffield Crown Court heard that the divorcee had threatened her neighbour Marion Westerman after she gave a statement to police investigating the disappearance and murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. During a heated argument, Capp told her: "You are dead, watch your back." The jury was told that Capp threatened Ms Westerman during a confrontation at the defendant's home in Grimsby.

She blamed Ms Westerman for the fact that Carr had been remanded in custody in Holloway prison after her arrest with her fiancé, Ian Huntley.

In a statement later used by the prosecution at the Old Bailey trial, Ms Westerman told detectives she saw Carr and Huntley looking into the rear of a red car in Grimsby after the two 10-year-olds went missing. The young woman, she said, was sobbing while Huntley looked pale and thin.

The neighbour told the Sheffield trial Capp threatened her when she went round to her house to "smooth the waters" after a dispute over a cat.