Maxine Carr, the woman charged in connection with the killings of schoolgirls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells, faces two new charges.

They allege that she assisted an offender, the Crown Prosecution Service said on Thursday.

The two new charges relate to accusations that knowing her former boyfriend Ian Huntley had murdered the girls - or committed some other offence - she lied about his and her whereabouts, intending to prevent him being caught or prosecuted.

Ms Carr, 25, of Soham, Cambridgeshire, has been on remand in Holloway jail, north London.

Mr Huntley, 28, also of Soham, is accused of murdering the girls and of conspiring with Ms Carr to attempt to pervert the course of justice.

Ms Carr broke off their relationship in December last year.

'Poisoned chalice'

The pair are both listed for a pre-trial hearing at the Old Bailey at the end of next week. Neither is expected to attend.

Holly and Jessica went missing on 4 August after being seen walking near their homes in Soham.

Their bodies were found in a ditch at Lakenheath, Suffolk, on 17 August.

Mr Huntley was the caretaker at a school near the girls' homes.

In a separate development on Thursday, it was announced a new caretaker would not be appointed to Soham Village School.

Principal Howard Gilbert said it would be too insensitive to readvertise the post which had become a "poisoned chalice".

The caretaker's house on the school's grounds, in which the pair lived before their arrests, remains boarded up and will be preserved by the police until after the couple's trial.