Eleanor Williams: 22-year-old who made false claims of being groomed by Asian gang sentenced to eight and a half years
A 22-year-old woman, whose lies caused a storm of anger and protests after she falsely claimed she was the victim of an Asian grooming gang, has been jailed for eight and a half years.
Eleanor Williams was today sentenced for perverting the course of justice.
She fabricated evidence to make it look like she was a victim of multiple men.
WARNING: This article contains images people may find distressing
Eleanor Williams, 22, was found guilty of perverting the course of justice
The senior investigating officer, Doug Marshall, told Sky News: “I’ve had cases where people have told lies, but never to this extent.”
He added that if Williams hadn’t been charged “it just wouldn’t have stopped”.
Sentencing Williams, Honorary Recorder of Preston Judge Robert Altham, said: “It is troubling to say the least that she shows no significant signs of remorse.”
He said there was no explanation for why the defendant made the allegations, which he described as “complete fiction”.
“Unless and until the defendant chooses to say why she has told these lies we will not know,” he added.
At the sentencing hearing in Preston Crown Court on Monday, three men Williams had falsely accused of attacking her said they had tried to take their own lives because of her accusations.
Mohammed Ramzan, who was accused by Williams of rape and trafficking, said he had tried to kill himself two weeks after being arrested. He said: “I still bear the scars to this day.”
Speaking outside the court after Williams was jailed, Mr Ramzan said, “I am not sure how my family and I are going to recover from this”, but added they were “determined to move forward positively” with their lives.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Victims on impact of false accusations on their lives
In a statement read to the court, another of Williams’ victims, Jordan Trengove, said the word “rapist” had been sprayed on his house and that he’d tried to end his life in August 2020.
“I’ve not been able to leave the house, I’ve not been able to go to work,” he told Sky News after the sentencing.
“Though it’s a relief that she’s locked away, Mr Trengove added he wished the prison term “was a bit longer”.
Another man, Oliver Gardner, gave a statement saying he was sectioned after trying to end his life because of the claims.
Even though four of the men she’d accused were white, Asian business owners were impacted after Williams posted pictures of injuries to her face and body on Facebook in May 2020.
Two owners of local Indian restaurants who didn’t want to be named told Sky News they had bricks thrown through their windows and were spat at in the street. One said he lost 90% of his customers in the immediate aftermath of the claims.
Police say more than 150 crimes were committed, by others, as a result of Williams’ false claims.
Mohammed Ramzan said he tried to take his own life
They say they initially began investigating the sexual abuse allegations, but the case took a turn when they realised Williams had booked herself into a hotel at a time when she claimed she was being sold for sex in several properties in Blackpool.
CCTV showed her checking in. Phone records suggested she stayed in her room watching videos, apart from a brief trip to a nearby store to buy a pot noodle and chocolate.
Further investigations showed Williams had set up fake social media accounts to message herself, to make it appear that she was receiving messages from abusers.
Claims that Mr Ramzan tried to auction her in Amsterdam and traffic her to Ibiza were also demonstrably untrue.
But, speaking exclusively to Sky News, her sister Lucy said Williams’ phone messages “were constant… asking her to go out, to wear certain types of clothing, to make sure she looks good for tonight. It was all very weird”. She said she also watched the messages come through and even filmed threatening snapchats such as an image of a gun and machetes.
Lucy Williams accepts several of her sister’s claims were untrue, such as her being auctioned in Amsterdam, as she’d been with her on that trip. Nor does Lucy believe that her sister went to sex parties from the age of 12, as they shared a room together, and she would have noticed.
However, she is convinced there were men, not included on the charge sheet, who did intimidate and harm Williams.
The injuries Eleanor Williams claims were caused by her attackers were self-inflicted, the court heard
Describing one evening, she said: “One of the men was harassing Ellie at the bar and some of our friends had seen it and they’d warned him off. And there was a takeaway around the corner from the nightclub, and Ellie was coming home that night with me.
“He grabbed her outside of the takeaway, and started pulling her arm saying, ‘come on we’re going’. And she was like, ‘no I’m going with my sister’, and his face, he was so angry with her. She did come home with me, and then the next weekend she came back black and blue, worse than we’ve ever seen.”
Lucy says her sister begged her not to go to the police, even when she repeatedly came home with bruises, culminating in injuries Lucy photographed in May 2020 that Eleanor posted on Facebook, claiming she was being abused.
It was the prosecution’s case that Williams inflicted these injuries upon herself in an effort to support her lies. CCTV of her buying a hammer in Tesco was shown in court, similar to one found in the field where Williams was discovered with her wounds.
A pathologist gave evidence that bruising to her face, arms, back and legs, were consistent with being self-inflicted by a hammer of the same type.
In January, a jury found Williams guilty on all nine counts of perverting the course of justice.
In a statement read out by the defence, Williams said: “I know I’ve made some mistakes and I am sorry. I was young and confused. I’m not saying I am guilty, but I know I have done some wrong and so I’m sorry.”
She added she was “devastated” by the impact her Facebook post had on the community of Barrow.
Eleanor Williams’ mother, Allison Johnston
Her mother, Allison, also spoke to Sky News, and tearfully talked about the moment the verdict came in. She said: “I can’t describe it. I still can’t take it in really. It just doesn’t feel real. The person the press are portraying is not the person I know.”
She accepts her daughter told lies but said: “I believe she was just trying to get people to listen to her.”
However, the men who faced false allegations, and people in Barrow who feel they were deceived, will all welcome the fact that Williams is behind bars.
Changes to how death certificates are issued in England and Wales have made the grieving process more “stressful”, according to bereaved families.
Anne Short died on New Year’s Eve, only a few months after she was diagnosed with cancer.
Her son Elliot, 30, from Newport, South Wales, says the grieving process was made harder after having to wait eight weeks to hold her funeral.
“Quite frankly, it’s ridiculous, when you’re already going through all this pain and suffering as a family,” he told Sky News.
“You can’t move on, you can’t do anything, you can’t arrange anything, you can’t feel that they’re at peace, you can’t put yourself at peace, because of a process that’s been put in that nobody seems to know anything about at the moment.”
That process has been introduced by the government to address “concerns” about how causes of death were previously scrutinised, following high-profile criminal cases such as those of Harold Shipman and Lucy Letby.
Up until last September, causes of death could be signed off by a GP, but now they have to be independently scrutinised by a medical examiner, before a death certificate can be issued.
Anne Short
‘I felt helpless’
Mr Short said he was ringing “twice a day” for a progress update, but that it was “going through too many sets of hands”.
Until the death certificate was issued, Ms Short’s body could not be released into the care of the funeral director.
“The main stress for me was knowing that she was up there [at the hospital] and I couldn’t move her, so I felt helpless, powerless,” he said.
“I felt like I’d let her down in a lot of ways. I know now, looking back, that there’s nothing that we could have done, but at the time it was adding a lot of stress. I just wanted her out of there.”
Elliot Short had to wait eight weeks to hold his mother’s funeral
‘Something has to be done’
Mr Short fears there’s a risk the new process might defeat its purpose.
“There’s other people that I know that have lost since, where it’s been in a care home or something like that, where they haven’t been happy with the care they’ve had, but they haven’t raised that because you’re in this bubble of grief and you just want to get it done,” he said.
“Something has to be done about that because I think it just drags on the grief and there’s obviously a danger then of it being against the reasons why they’re trying to do it.”
Arrangements after the death of his father less than two years ago was a “much easier process”, according to Mr Short.
“I lost my father as well 15 months before, so we went through the process prior to this coming in and we had the death certificate, he died at home, but we had it within three days,” he added.
Elliot Short
‘State of limbo’
James Tovey is the sixth generation of his family running Tovey Bros, a funeral director in Newport.
He told Sky News that the delays were having a “huge impact” on the business and that the families they serve were being “left in a state of limbo” for weeks after their bereavement.
“I would say that most funerals will take place perhaps two to four weeks after the person’s passed away, whereas now it’s much more like four to six weeks, so it is quite a significant difference,” he said.
“It’s one thing on top of an already distressing time for them and we’re frustrated and upset for [the families] as much as anybody else and it’s just annoying that we can’t do anything about it.”
James Tovey
Mr Tovey said that the reform was “very useful” and he remained supportive of it.
“It’s just the delays. I’m sure they can do something about that over time, but it’s just waiting for that to happen, and I wish that could be addressed sooner rather than later,” he added.
“It does put pressure on other people, it’s not just ourselves, it’s pressure on the hospitals, on crematoria, on the registrar service and everyone else involved in our profession.
“But of course all of us we’re there to serve the families, and we’re just upset for them and wish we could do more to help.”
The organisation representing funeral directors has called for “urgent action”
The National Association of Funeral Directors said some areas of England and Wales are experiencing much shorter delays than others, but has called for “urgent action”.
Rachel Bradburne, its director of external affairs, said the system was “introduced for all the right reasons” but that it was “not working as well as we need it to”.
“Funeral directors are relaying stories of delays, frustration, and bottlenecks on a daily basis, and urgent action is required to review and recalibrate the new system,” she added.
‘Unintended consequences’
Dr Roger Greene is the deputy chief executive of bereavement charity AtALoss.
He told Sky News that the delays were “one of the unintended consequences of what’s a well-intended reform of a system”.
“What has actually happened is that the number of deaths now requiring independent scrutiny has trebled,” he said.
“So in England and Wales in 2023, the last full year of data, there were nearly 200,000 deaths reported to a coroner, whereas there were 600,000 deaths.
“Now, what is the change in the process is that all deaths now need to be reported for independent scrutiny.”
Dr Roger Greene
Dr Greene said there may be ways the system could be “tweaked a little bit”, such as giving medical examiners the ability to issue an interim death certificate.
“We believe that people can process grief well if they’re given the opportunity and they’ve got a proper understanding,” he added.
“But the systems that we have in the country need to be able to work as well with that diversity of faith and culture.”
‘Vital improvements’
Jason Shannon, lead medical examiner for Wales, told Sky News he recognised “the importance of a seamless, accurate and timely death certification process”.
“Medical examiners are one part of the wider death certification process and were introduced to give additional independent safeguards as well as to give bereaved people a voice, which they hadn’t had before,” he added.
“Medical examiners have no role in determining where the body of a family’s relative is cared for and except in a minority of deaths where a coroner needs to be involved, that decision should be one that a family is fully empowered to make in a way that is best for them.”
A Welsh government spokesperson said they “would like to apologise to any families who have experienced delays in receiving death certificates”.
The government said it was working with the lead medical examiner and the NHS in Wales “to understand where the delays are” and how to provide bereaved families with “additional support”.
Read more from Sky News:
Families feel impact of spiralling funeral costs
Calls for funeral sector to be regulated
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said it recognised there were “some regional variations in how long it takes to register a death”.
They added that the changes to the death certification process “support vital improvements to patient safety and aim to provide comfort and clarity to the bereaved”.
Social media influencers are fuelling a rise in misogyny and sexism in the UK’s classrooms, according to teachers.
More than 5,800 teachers were polled as part of the survey by the NASUWT teaching union, and nearly three in five (59%) of teachers said they believe social media use has contributed to a deterioration in pupils’ behaviour.
The findings have been published during the union’s annual conference, which is taking place in Liverpool this weekend.
One motion that is set to be debated at the conference calls on the union’s executive to work with teachers “to assess the risk that far-right and populist movements pose to young people”.
Andrew Tate was referenced by a number of teachers who took part in the survey, who said he had negative influence on male pupils.
One teacher said she’d had 10-year-old boys “refuse to speak to [her]…because [she is] a woman”.
Another teacher said “the Andrew Tate phenomena had a huge impact on how [pupils at an all-boys school] interacted with females and males they did not see as ‘masculine'”.
While another respondent to the survey said their school had experienced some incidents of “derogatory language towards female staff…as a direct result of Andrew Tate videos”.
Last month, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hosted a discussion in Downing Street on how to prevent young boys from being dragged into a “whirlpool of hatred and misogyny”.
The talks were with the creators of Netflix drama Adolescence, which explored so-called incel culture.
Read more from Sky News:
Former Rochdale footballer dies aged 36
Two Britons among four killed in cable car crash
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Starmer meets Adolescence creators
‘An urgent need for action’
Patrick Roach, the union’s general secretary, said “misogyny, racism and other forms of prejudice and hatred…are not a recent phenomenon”.
He said teachers “cannot be left alone to deal with these problems” and that a “multi-agency response” was needed.
“There is an urgent need for concerted action involving schools, colleges and other agencies to safeguard all children and young people from the dangerous influence of far-right populists and extremists,” Mr Roach added.
👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈
A spokesperson for the Department for Education (DfE) said: “Education can be the antidote to hate, and the classroom should be a safe environment for sensitive topics to be discussed and where critical thinking is encouraged.
“That’s why we provide a range of resources to support teachers to navigate these challenging issues, and why our curriculum review will look at the skills children need to thrive in a fast-changing online world.”
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway