Soham murderer Ian Huntley's former girlfriend Maxine Carr yesterday won an indefinite order protecting her new identity to fend off the "real and significant risk" of injury or death.

The injunction granted by Mr Justice Eady at London's High Court was not contested by the media.

Carr, 27, whose fight for anonymity has been funded by legal aid, was not present.

The judge heard that the move was supported by the Home Office, the police and the probation service, and was not opposed by the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith QC.

He said: "I am satisfied that the only effective means of discharging the court's protective duty is to grant the injunction in the terms sought.

"It is necessary to protect life and limb and psychological health."

In December 2003, Carr was convicted of conspiring to pervert the course of justice with Huntley, who killed schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

She provided a false alibi for him by lying to police about her whereabouts on the weekend in August 2002 when the ten-year-olds were murdered.

Last May, Mr Justice Eady ruled that Carr's identity needed to be kept secret for her own safety following her release on probation that month after serving half of a 42-month sentence.

That order was tightened again last July.

Yesterday, the judge emphasised that there was always a right, if the circumstances changed, for the media or any interested party to apply to the court at short notice for a discharge or variation of the injunction.

Earlier, Carr's QC, Edward Fitzgerald, said there was an "overwhelming case" for making the order.

It bans publication of any details which could reveal Carr's new identity, including any description of where she lives and the nature of her work.

Similar injunctions had been granted in the cases of child killers Jon Venables and Robert Thompson and Mary Bell.

Mr Fitzgerald said: "There is a real and significant risk of injury or of worse - killing - if the injunction is not granted."

He said that there was evidence of harassment and threats involving Carr. There had also been a series of incidents involving people mistaken for her who had been assaulted, threatened, harassed or abused, including:

* An incident in Grimsby where an innocent woman had been assaulted in the street;

* A woman in East Kilbride had become the victim of a vicious hate campaign, with a mob gathering outside her home and death threats on the Internet;

* In September 2004, there were mistaken sightings of Carr in Chepstow and a person was reportedly spat at in supermarket aisles.

Mr Fitzgerald said there were also comments culled from Internet chatrooms, including:

* "This bitch should be dead and I believe she will be, if there is any justice in this life, by the end of the year."

* "I would glass her if she was in my local."

* "Just shoot her."