Eleanor Williams sparked outrage in the Cumbrian town of Barrow when she claimed on social media she had been groomed, trafficked and beaten, in May 2020.
Posting pictures of her bruised and beaten body, the 22-year-old said she had been the victim of an Asian grooming gang in the port town ‘for years’, leading to protests led by former EDL leader Tommy Robinson.
It heightened racial tensions – one curry house had its windows smashed and a Muslim takeaway owner was chase 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 leave the town altogether.
Eleanor Williams, pictured, claimed she was abused by an Asian grooming gang in Barrow, Cumbria
The 22-year-old posted photos on social media claiming to show injuries caused by the abuse (pictured), but these were found to be self-inflicted
But it has now been found that the claims made by Williams were all false, a fabrication made by Williams that prosecutors said had ruined people’s lives.
Evidence that she had posted on social media, including messages from the men who were alleged to have abused her, was found to be misleading or outright false by police.
Instead of being a grooming gang victim, a jury ruled Williams was a liar who had caused her own injuries as part of a fantasy, something she could now be sent to prison for.
On Tuesday she was convicted of a total of eight counts of perverting the course of justice after an 11-week trial at Preston Crown Court.
These included claims that she had been drugged and raped by multiple people since she was 12 years old, and that she had been trafficked to places such as Ibiza and Amsterdam and abused by men there.
Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC compared the allegation with a scene from Liam Neeson film Taken, where the main character tracks down a human trafficking gang that had abducted his daughter.
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.
On another occasion she accused a man of threatening to kill her unless she had sex with eight men in Blackpool, The Mail reports.
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 10 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.
Williams’s claims that she had been abused by a grooming gang were found to be false by a jury
Former leader of the English Defence League Tommy Robinson, pictured here at a protest out in Telford last year, went to a demonstration in Barrow following the claims made by Williams
After an 11-week trial at Preston Crown Court, pictured, Williams was convicted of eight counts of perverting the course of justice
Despite this alibi and the complete lack of evidence, he was found guilty in the court of social media. Someone painted the word ‘rapist’ on his house and the windows were smashed in.
Evidence given to the police by Williams about the supposed rape, including Snapchat logs which claimed to show him admitting to it, were later found to be fake and made using the wifi at the home of Williams mother.
The lies continued – a Snapchat account that Williams claimed belonged to an Asian trafficker called Shaggy Wood, was actually found to belong to a man called Liam Wood.
Mr Wood, a white man from Essex who works in a Tesco, had believed Williams was a friend who lived in Portsmouth and was planning to visit him.
Williams was 19 when she made the claims, with her post being shared more than 100,000 times and sparking the creation of a group called ‘Justice for Ellie’, which currently has more than 100,000 members on Facebook.
A JustGiving page to ‘get justice for Ellie’ received more than £22,000 in donations, which it claimed would be used for ‘solicitor fees’.
People in the town held demonstrations in support – bumper stickers with the words ‘Justice for Ellie’ were sold and became commonplace.
Tommy Robinson, the former leader of the English Defence League, turned up in the town to ‘investigate’ what was happening.
He would later say that after speaking to some of the people she had accused he had found ‘conflicting accounts’ about what had happened.
In the meantime, those who she had named or suggested were responsible faced their own form of abuse in the town they called home.
Mr Ramzan told told the BBC his windows were smashed, as was his business and ice cream van after he was accused by Williams.
The businessman said he was frequently verbally abused on the street, and that the town was ‘a step away from anarchy’.
While under cross-examination during the trial, Mr Ramzan asked Louise Blackwell KC, defending: ‘Don’t you think you have put my life through enough hell, or your client has?’
Mr Trengove, who was forced to move away from the town, told the court: ‘It can ruin your life and it has ruined mine.’
He told the Guardian: ‘I was barred from everywhere. I was called a rapist, a nonce.’
‘I thought it would end but the first day we moved in I had someone shout rapist at me. It was clear then that no matter where I went, someone would always know.’
When she was charged by police with multiple counts of perverting the course of justice many of her supporters were left confused.
In her social media posts she had described being left with broken bones, bruises and bite marks as a result of the abuse.
Police said they believed the injuries were self-inflicted – a hammer she claimed had been used to cause them only contained her DNA, and no trace of any attacker. She had been seen buying it from B&Q days before the alleged attack.
During her evidence, Williams 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.’
Williams, of Teasdale Road, Barrow, stared straight ahead as the verdicts were returned at Preston Crown Court on Tuesday.
Honorary Recorder of Preston Judge Robert Altham adjourned sentencing to March 13 and 14.
He said before the trial he had been provided with information on the community impact of Williams’ actions: ‘That community impact was said to include some elements of tension within the community of Barrow.
‘It included, as I can recall, at least one family moving out of the Barrow area and harm to various businesses.’
