Asian grooming gang fantasist is jailed for eight and a half years
Fantasist whose rape lies drove three men to attempt suicide is jailed for eight years: CCTV reveals moment serial liar bought hammer she used to beat her own face in and Pot Noodle she ate in hotel – as she claimed she was victim of Asian grooming gang
- Judge said there was ‘no explanation’ for Eleanor Williams’ twisted actions
- For help, call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org
A fantasist whose lies about being raped by an Asian grooming gang drove three men to attempt suicide was today jailed for eight and a half years – as CCTV footage revealed the moment she bought a hammer which she used to beat her own face in.
Eleanor Williams, 22, was found guilty of perverting the course of justice earlier this year after accusing several innocent men of raping, trafficking and abusing her in a Facebook post that included graphic images she claimed to have sustained.
The post, made during lockdown in May 2020, was shared more than 100,000 times and sparked national outrage, leading to dangerous racial unrest and a protest in her hometown of Barrow-in-Furness attended by EDL founder Tommy Robinson.
But evidence would show her claims were entirely made up, with CCTV showing her in Tesco buying the hammer she would use to harm herself and a packet of Pot Noodles she ate in a hotel at the same time she claimed she was being held captive.
The fallout from her elaborate tissue of lies saw three of the wrongly accused men try to take their own lives, a curry house attacked by thugs and a Muslim takeaway owner chased down the street by men who poured alcohol on his head.
Sentencing, Judge Robert Altham said there was ‘no explanation’ for Williams’ lies as he criticised her for showing ‘no significant sign of remorse’. He said she was not racially motivated and chose to accuse Asian as well as white men to copy ‘other cases of national prominence’.
Eleanor Williams, 22, was found guilty of perverting the course of justice earlier this year after falsely accusing a number of men of rape and sharing photos of her ‘injuries’
Williams in Tesco buying a hammer that she would later use to cave her own face in
Mohammed Ramzan, a business owner who was accused of grooming Williams, told the court his life had been made ‘hell on earth’ by false allegations.
Mr Ramzan, who was in tears as he spoke from the witness box, said two weeks after he was arrested following Williams’ claims he attempted to take his own life.
He said: ‘I still bear the scars to this day.’
Mr Ramzan said his property had been damaged and his businesses had been ‘ruined’ after he and his family were targeted ‘in the most horrendous way’.
‘I have had countless death threats made over social media from people all over the world because of what they thought I was involved in,’ he said.
Speaking outside court today, he vowed to stay in Barrow.
‘I am not sure how my family and I are going to recover from this’, he said, before adding that they are ‘determined to move forward positively’ with their lives.
Jordan Trengove said his life was ‘utterly destroyed’ by William’s allegations.
The word ‘rapist’ had been spray painted across his house and his window was smashed after she accused him of raping and attacking her.
After he was charged following Williams’ claims, he said he spent 73 days in prison, where he shared a cell with a convicted sex offender.
He said: ‘Things had calmed down a bit until the Facebook post in 2020.
‘This made things even worse for me. There were big protests and marches in Barrow. The lowest point was when I tried to end my life in August 2020.’
And a second man, Oliver Gardner, said his chance encounter with Williams in Preston led to him being sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
Williams had falsely accused multiple people of abusing her, with a jury finding her guilty of eight counts of perverting the course of justice
Williams claimed restaurateur Mohammed Ramzan (pictured) had trafficked her since the age of 12 and threatened to kill her. Mr Ramzan denied ever having any contact with Williams
Jordan Trengove (pictured), 22, was driven to attempt suicide as his life was ‘utterly destroyed’ by her baseless accusations of rape against him from Williams
Mr Gardner, who was accused of rape after he met Williams in the city centre, said it was a ‘real shock’ when he was contacted by Cumbria Police and told of her claims, adding: ‘It was just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.’
How fantasist’s Labour councillor mother stood by her daughter
By Kevin Donald
The mother of fantasist Eleanor Williams said she stood by her daughter despite her lies.
Allison Johnston, a 51-year-old Labour councillor in Barrow, told MailOnline in January: ‘I believe my daughter.’
She was suspended by Labour after the intervention.
Allison Johnston, a 51-year-old Labour councillor in Barrow (pictured), insisted her daughter, Eleanor Williams was a victim of assault and trafficking
Johnston claimed that Williams had been the subject of a National Referral Mechanism (NRM) order which claimed she had been trafficked for sexual purposes from the age of 12.
The NRM was introduced in 2009 following the signing of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.
It was designed to identify and protect victims of modern slavery and human trafficking.
Mrs Johnston said: ‘The order says Ellie was a victim of exploitation and trafficking from the age of 12. Personally I don’t believe that because I think as her mother I would have known something was happening to her at such a young age.
‘But to us, her family, it says she was telling the truth, that she was a victim in the way that she claimed to be and as her mother I believe her. There were some things she claimed that I do believe were not true, there were parts of it that she made up.
‘But I do believe that substantially she was telling the truth and she was the victim of abuse and trafficking. I also don’t believe that Ellie inflicted those injuries on herself, she couldn’t have caused them.’
A Labour spokesperson said: ‘The party does not comment on internal party matters and any complaints are investigated in line with our rules and procedures.’
In his statement, he said he tried to end his life before being sectioned, saying: ‘This whole period in my life has been totally overwhelming.’
Cameron Bibby, who was the first man accused of rape by Williams in 2017, said he had to remove himself from most social media.
He continued to say that because of the online abuse, he also became scared to pick his son up from nursery because of the way people looked at him.
He said after Williams posted her account on Facebook, his neighbours displayed ‘Justice for Ellie’ stickers in their windows, which ‘intimidated’ him.
Superintendent Matthew Pearman, of Cumbria Police, said Williams’ allegations led to ‘public displays of mass anger’ in Barrow, with protests held outside the police station and on a retail park.
Videos of English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson in the town were shown in court.
In a letter read to the court, Williams said she had not instigated anything which happened in the community and did not want Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, to come to the town.
She said: ‘I do not agree with his views or opinions.’
In the letter to the judge, she said: ‘I’m not saying I’m guilty but I know I have done wrong on some of this and I’m sorry.
‘I’m devastated at the trouble that has been caused in Barrow, if I knew what consequences would have come from that status I never would have posted it.’
Louise Blackwell KC, defending Williams, said her client maintained the allegations were true.
She added: ‘Other than her personal vulnerabilities and her age there doesn’t appear to be any motivation at all.’
Deputy Chief Constable Mark Webster said in a statement that businesses had been forced to close and members of the community had left their homes because of the outcry.
Defending Williams, Louise Blackwell KC said: ‘Miss Williams continues in her allegations against the various people in pretty much the same circumstances.’
Williams was 19 when she claimed on Facebook she had been raped and abused by a grooming gang operation in the coastal town of Barrow.
It sparked protests and led to former English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson visiting the town to ‘investigate’ the claims.
Williams’ trial, which began in October last year, heard she had accused a number of men of rape, going back to 2017, and told police she was groomed and trafficked by an Asian gang.
On May 19 2020, she was found by officers near her home on Walney Island with injuries which she claimed were inflicted by the gang after she was taken to a house in the town and raped.
But the prosecution claimed Williams caused the injuries to herself with a hammer, which was found with her blood on close by.
Sentencing, Judge Robert Altham said there was ‘no explanation’ for Williams’ lies as he criticised her for showing ‘no significant sign of remorse’
Williams posted pictures on Facebook claiming to show injuries sustained at the hands of a gang who had groomed, trafficked and beaten her
Williams had denied telling a ‘pack of lies’ to the police and the jury, saying: ‘I wanted people to know what was going on in Barrow, still is going on’
Williams was 19 years old when she claimed on Facebook she had been raped and abused by a grooming gang operation in the coastal town of Barrow
Father tells how his life was ‘destroyed’ by Williams’ baseless allegations
One of the victims of a serial rape liar who stoked outrage in her hometown has told how he was driven to attempt suicide as his life was ‘utterly destroyed’ by her baseless claims against him.
Jordan Trengove, 22, spent 10 weeks on a sex offenders wing in prison, sharing a cell with a self-confessed paedophile, because he was randomly targeted by Eleanor Williams.
Jordan was the first of her victims and was accused of three rapes against her in 2019.
It led to him being arrested in front of his horrified family, his home becoming the target of hate attacks and 10 weeks in HMP Preston.
He is now bringing a civil action against Cumbria Police, claiming they failed to properly investigate ‘cast iron’ alibis and urged police: ‘Listen to the accused men as well as the woman making the complaint.’
On one of the occasions Williams claimed he was raping her, Jordan was in the back of a police van having got into an altercation outside a Barrow nightclub.
He was still charged with the rape offence. His nightmare began on a night out in 2019. Jordan said: ‘Me and a friend were going out and Ellie Williams had no one to go out with so she tagged along with us.
‘I didn’t know her well but thought she was OK, she seemed to be a nice enough girl and we had a good time for a while that night. I was never alone with her and it was all perfectly innocent.
It was alleged Williams sent some messages to herself, making them appear as if they were from traffickers or fellow victims, and in other cases manipulated real people to send messages which she then said were from her abusers.
Williams had claimed business owner Mohammed Ramzan had groomed her from the age of 12, and had put her to work at brothels in Amsterdam and sold her at an auction there.
But the court heard at the time she was in the Dutch capital, his bank card was being used at a B&Q in Barrow.
When confronted with evidence that she had been with her sister and her sister’s boyfriend the whole time she was in Amsterdam and the abuse could not have happened, Williams maintained her version of events was correct.
Restaurant owner Mohammed Ramzan, whom Williams claimed had groomed her from the age of 12, was arrested over her lies and said he and his family received more than 500 death threats.
He branded her ‘delusional’ and a ‘fantasist’ in court.
Amid heightened racial tensions one curry house had its windows smashed and a Muslim takeaway owner was chased down the street by men who poured alcohol on his head.
It also painted a target on the backs of the men she accused. One man saw his wife leave him over the claims, while another family were forced to move away from the town altogether.
On another occasion she accused a man of threatening to kill her unless she had sex with eight men in Blackpool, local newspaper The Mail reported.
But this was another fabrication, with CCTV showing she booked herself into a hotel and then stayed inside apart from a brief walk to the shops.
She accused another man, Jordan Trengove, of raping her – an allegation that led to him spending ten weeks on remand in prison.
He was finally cleared when police realised he had been in the back of one of their vans at the exact time he was supposed to have raped her – he had been arguing at a taxi rank when he was spotted by officers.
Evidence that she posted on social media, including messages from the men who were alleged to have abused her, were found to be misleading or outright false by police.
During her evidence, Williams initially denied telling a ‘pack of lies’ to the police and the jury.
Asked about her Facebook post, she said: ‘I wanted people to know what was going on in Barrow, still is going on.’
But the jury did not believe her, instead finding her guilty of making the claims up and causing her own injuries as part of a fantasy.
She had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to one count of perverting the course of justice, which related to contacting her sister and mother with requests for them to take a hammer to her solicitor.
William’s mother, 51-year-old Labour councillor Allison Johnston, has insisted she ‘believes’ her daughter despite her lies being exposed in court.
It sparked protests and led to former English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson visiting the town to ‘investigate’ the claims
Her post, made during the Covid lockdown in May 2020, was shared more than 100,000 times
If you have been affected by this story, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org.
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