Home video of Eleanor Williams shows a happy teenager; dancing, singing into a bottle, joking with her sister, and making others laugh. A marked contrast to the videos that came to define her.

Warning: This article contains references to sexual abuse and violence

Five years ago, police bodyworn camera footage showed a battered and drugged girl with a bleeding mouth and bruises mushrooming over her closed eye.

Looking like the victim of extreme violence, she claimed on Facebook in May 2020 that she was under the control of a brutal Asian gang who sold her for sex in her hometown of Barrow-in-Furness, northwest England.

But she was found guilty of perverting the course of justice. In January 2023, a jury found that she had lied, fabricated evidence and even inflicted wounds upon herself to frame innocent men.

There is, however, a new twist in this murky story.

There were Asian men grooming girls in Barrow – and at least one of those involved was linked to Eleanor’s allegations.

For the first time, Sky News is revealing extracts of a diary Eleanor kept in the run-up to her notorious Facebook post. And while her diary, which catalogues abuse by controlling men, may be another work of fiction, somehow within it, the girl famed for lying identifies a man who has been convicted of similar crimes.

“It’s hard,” she writes, that people think of her as a “liar” and “evil and a druggy”.

“I wish I could explain everything but what’s the point when they just say I’m lying,” she adds.

The girl who lied

The night before the Facebook post, police found Eleanor bruised and battered in a field.

“She had horrific facial injuries,” says her mother, Allison Johnston. “There was blood everywhere.”

It wasn’t the first time Allison had seen her daughter with unexplained injuries. Her sister, Lucy, believes Eleanor had reached breaking point and spoke about feeling ignored by the police.

“The only way I can think of it stopping is if people know what’s going on,” Lucy says Eleanor told her.

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Introducing… Unreliable Witness

The Facebook post triggered a wave of protest and anger at the police. People wanted “Justice for Ellie”.

The Asian community was targeted, businesses’ windows were smashed and there were more than 80 hate-related crimes linked to Eleanor’s claims in the ensuing months.

While no one was identified in her post, local restaurant and ice-cream van owner, Mohammed Ramzan, known as Mo Rammy, 45, was named by Eleanor to the police.

When rumours started circulating about his involvement, he was left fearing for his family’s safety and, he says, barely left the house for three years.

“We had fire extinguishers and baseball bats next to [the children’s] beds,” Mo says, tearfully. “We had threats people [were] going to burn the shop down, burn us down.”

Not long after her Facebook post started going viral, it emerged that Eleanor herself was under investigation – for fabricating stories. That same day, police arrested her on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. They would later discover a hammer in the field where she was found with her injuries, which only had her DNA on it, and CCTV from Tesco would show she had bought an identical hammer days earlier.

In her trial, evidence was placed before the jury that she had fabricated text messages to implicate the men. CCTV showed she had stayed in a hotel on her own for an evening in Barrow, on a night when she’d claimed to have been raped by multiple men in Blackpool.

In March 2023, she was found guilty of trying to frame five men and was jailed for eight and a half years.

The other trial

While most of the town was ready to move on – there was a group of local women with an ordeal ahead of them. Barrow had a secret. Another much-delayed trial involving three Asian brothers accused of grooming and sexually abusing underage girls, some as young as seven, in Barrow and Leeds was about to get under way.

“Barrow got branded a lying town,” says Elizabeth, a key witness. “It’s not. Grooming was happening here and still probably is.”

The three men faced 62 offences between them, which were alleged to have occurred in Leeds and Barrow between 1996 and 2010.

Shaha Amran Miah, 49, (Jai), was accused of 16 sexual offences against three girls, as well as two charges of intimidation and one of kidnap.

Shaha Alman Miah, 47, (Ali), faced three sexual offences against one girl.

Shah Joman Miah, 38, (Sarj), was accused of 40 sexual offences against three children. Nine of these were rape of a child.

Elizabeth’s then boyfriend worked at a takeaway called Iesha’s, owned by the Miah family. It was there, she says, that girls as young as 13 or 14 were taken to so-called sex parties.

“Men came down from Leeds. I know they’d come down for one thing… sex with girls,” she says.

It was Sarj and the eldest brother Jai, she says, who regularly resorted to “blackmail, manipulation and threats”. She told the court that Jai was a drug dealer who made threats to try to stop her giving them an interview.

Elizabeth was pregnant at the time. “I will set this house on fire with you and your partner in it and make sure that kid will never come out of you,” Jai told her, she says.

The court also heard how Sarj would take one underage girl to a hotel for sex, sneaking her in after the receptionist had left for the night. Aged in his late 20s, he began having sex with her when she was 13. A decade and a half later, the court heard she still has nightmares where she sees his face.

Prosecution barrister Tim Evans KC said the brothers “created an environment in Barrow in which each of them could abuse young girls”. He described how the men used free cigarettes, food and alcohol and even paid for hair extensions as “classic grooming” techniques, preying on vulnerable girls who were often neglected at home.

Earlier this month, all three men were found guilty of all the counts against them. Two of the brothers, Sarj and Jai, were sentenced to life in prison. Ali was given 14 years – four of those on licence.

Eleanor’s diary

A key character in Eleanor’s diary is the man now convicted of 40 counts of child abuse, Shah Joman Miah – Sarj.

The diary is dated from late 2019 to early 2020. In it, Sarj is frequently named as part of a controlling network of men. In the extracts below, we’ve replaced the names of other men with Z.

“Monday 21 October 2019… Had Snapchats from Z saying Sarj needs me in Blackburn tomorrow, said I had to get the train to Preston because they didn’t know for definite where Sarj wanted me.”

She also worries about Sarj being “pissed off” with her and references him being at so-called “parties” where men take money after she “goes with” certain people.

Feelings of intimidation also feature. “Tuesday 29 October 2019… Was watching out of my bedroom window and the car must have circled about three times. I got into bed and laid in the dark in silence. Had Z telling me not to piss Sarj off, Z saying I’m not to lose money.”

Sky News has digital evidence that the diary was written around the time it was dated. It wasn’t public knowledge at that time that police were investigating the Miah brothers for historical crimes.

Eleanor was convicted of lying about five men – Mo Rammy and four white men. But we can reveal that both Sarj and Jai’s names were brought up in her trial as among those she alleged had abused her, and what’s more – she was never charged with lying about them.

It was suggested during her trial that diaries were all part of her fabrication, along with faked messages and self-inflicted injuries – but it is a strange coincidence that a now convicted sex offender is in there. And he is not the only one.

The warnings

Eleanor’s mother Allison emailed police in October 2019 warning that Sarj had brought a dangerous man to Barrow, who was seen “manhandling” her daughter in a club and later pulling out a knife.

We can’t name this man for legal reasons, but two years after the email was sent, he broke into a woman’s house in another town and sexually assaulted her. He was later jailed.

In the extracts we have of Eleanor’s diary, this man is named 36 times and is described as violent towards her. Sarj is referenced eight times. Most of the men she was convicted of lying about were not referenced in the diary in the extracts we’ve seen.

The diary may well be an extension of the fantasy, but there is other supporting evidence that something was happening to Eleanor.

Her former boss at a local pub spoke of her being intimidated by men while she was working. And her sister said she was grabbed by an Asian man in a nightclub and received threats on her phone over Snapchat.

Sky News obtained a psychiatric report, which referred to a medical professional who did not believe Eleanor’s injuries were self-inflicted. The forensic psychiatrist concluded she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and was likely to have been the victim of child sexual exploitation.

Social service reports also reveal intimate injuries – and obvious signs of drug taking – even though the police say she was often pretending to be on drugs and that the injuries were for show. But the thing about the diary that is hard to ignore is she is naming men who would go on to be convicted of offences against other women.

Sarj had allegations made against him by another teenager in Barrow, which were investigated by police in 2018, but the case ended with no further action.

He was also identified by Sarah, not her real name, in Hull as having abused her from the age of 13 and selling her for sex to more than 100 men over three years.

Humberside Police continue to investigate Sarah’s case.

“He’s not just an abuser; he’s a ringleader,” Sarah told Sky News. When it comes to Eleanor’s case, she thinks the fact that Sarj “is a guy that has abused people” should have been looked at.

Elizabeth, whose evidence against Sarj helped lead to his conviction, said: “If I’d have known she’d [Eleanor] named him, I would have went to the police myself and said, ‘why are you calling this girl a liar?’.”

‘I don’t class him as human’

Sarj wasn’t charged until 2020. Previously, he often worked for local businessman Mo Rammy, the central figure who Eleanor was found guilty of lying about.

Mo first employed Sarj back in 2012. He says he felt betrayed when he learned of his crimes. “I don’t class him as human. You’ve had that person with you for so many years and they’ve just lied to you.”

But he doesn’t believe Eleanor is telling the truth about Sarj because of her lies about others including him. “Why would you fabricate the whole story and let this one horrible filthy beast walk the streets? It doesn’t make sense… I can’t see how I can believe that girl.”

Cumbria Police told Sky News: “All of Eleanor’s allegations (including those emailed by her mother) were investigated thoroughly and there was no evidence of any involvement by the Miah brothers.

“This is not a case where there was not enough evidence to pursue what she was reporting but a case where allegations were proved to be lies with evidence fabricated in an attempt to support those lies, resulting in convictions for multiple offences of perverting the course of justice.”

The force says the successful conviction of the Miah brothers shows how seriously they take offences of this nature in Cumbria, and they encourage victims to come forward. We’ve put our allegations to solicitors representing the Miah brothers but have currently had no reply.

What was going through Eleanor’s mind when she posted those allegations on Facebook is still unclear. But, at least, we know what she wrote in her diary in the months before.

On 17 October 2019, she wrote: “Starting to think there’s (ligit) no point in defending myself or explaining. I’ll let whoever think whatever and need to be okay with my situation.”

Eleanor has now been released from prison but has not returned to Barrow. She did lie about events, and a jury found she fabricated evidence, but we now know there were other liars in this town – with other secrets.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK

From bin collections and parks to social care, it’s estimated local authorities in England provide more than 800 services for residents, touching on many different aspects of our lives all the way from childhood to elderly care.

A National Audit Office report found spending on services increased by £12.8bn – from £60bn to £72.8bn – between 2015-16 and 2023-24, a 21% increase in real terms.

Most of this increased spending – £10.3bn – has gone to adult and children’s social care, which represents councils’ biggest spend, increasing as a share of overall spending from 53% to 58% over the period.

Previous central funding cuts and an increasing population mean that spending power per person has largely stagnated, however, and remains 1% lower per person than in 2015/16, the report said.

This is a measure of the funding available to local authorities from central government grants, council tax and business rates. Though grant funding has increased in recent years, it has not yet made up for pre-2020 government cuts.

Complex needs

The population in England has increased by 5% over the period, accounting for some of this increased pressure, but it’s not the only driver.

In many areas, demand has outpaced population growth, as external events and the complexity of people’s needs has shifted over time.

The rapid increase in costs of temporary accommodation, for example, has been driven by the large increases in people facing homelessness because of inflationary pressures and housing shortages.

At the same time, demand for new adult social care plans has increased by 15%.

As life expectancies have increased, the length of time in people’s lives during which they suffer from health problems has also increased.

“We see that in adult social care that people have multiple conditions and need more and more support and often will be appearing as if they’re frailer at an earlier age. So that’s an important trend,” explained Melanie Williams, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services.

“We’re constantly focusing on most urgent things at the expense of not doing the preventative work,” she added.

“When we’re just focusing on getting people home from hospital, we’re not doing that piece of work to enable them not to go there in the first place.”

Budget cliff edge over SEND spending

Meanwhile, demand for education, health and care (EHC) plans, for children with more complex special educational support needs has more than doubled, increasing by 140% to 576,000.

Budgets for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have not kept pace, meaning local authority spending has consistently outstripped government funding, leading to substantial deficits in council budgets.

Most authorities with responsibilities for SEND have overspent their budget as they have been allowed to until March 2026 on a temporary override, but they will need to draw on their own reserves to make these payments in a year.

One in three councils will have deficits that they can’t cover when the override ends.

Cuts to services

In the latest figures for 2023/24, the NAO found £3 in every £5 of services spending by English local authorities went towards social care and education, totalling £42.3bn.

This has left little headroom for other services, many of which have experienced real-terms financial cuts over the same time period, with councils forced to identify other services like libraries, parks and the arts to make savings.

But, Williams warned, cultural and environmental services like these can play a vital role in wellbeing and may actually exacerbate demand for social care.

“For us to be able to safeguard both adults and children – so people that need extra support – we do need that wider bit for councils to do,” said Williams, who also serves as corporate director of adult social care for Nottingham County Council.

“It’s no good me just providing care and support if somebody can’t go out and access a park, or go out and access leisure, or go out and have that wider support in the community.”

Commenting on the report, Cllr Tim Oliver, chairman of the County Councils Network, said: “As we have warned, councils have little choice but to spend more and more on the most demand-intensive services, at the expense of everything else – leaving them providing little more than care services.

“It is market-specific cost pressures, mainly in adult social care, children’s services, and special educational needs, that are driving councils’ costs rather than deprivation. Therefore government must recognise and address these pressures in its fair funding review, otherwise it will push many well-run councils to the brink.”

Fighting fires

The NAO report describes a vicious cycle where councils’ limited budgets have resulted in a focus on reactive care addressing the most urgent needs.

More efficient preventative care that could lower demand in the long term has fallen to the wayside.

In one example cited by the NAO, the Public Health Grant, which funds preventative health services, is expected to fall in real terms by £846m (20.1%) between 2015/16 and 2024/25.

Other areas have seen a switch in funding from prevention to late intervention.

Councils’ funding towards homelessness support services increased by £1.57bn between 2015/16 and 2013/24, while money for preventative and other housing services fell by £0.64bn.

Financing overhaul needed

Since 2018, seven councils have issued section 114 notices, which indicate that a council’s planned spending will breach the Local Government Finance Act when the local authority believes it’s become unable to balance its budget.

And 42 local authorities have received over £5bn of support through the Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) framework since its introduction in 2020.

According to a recent Local Government Association survey referenced in the NAO report, up to 44% of councils believe they’ll have to issue a section 114 notice within the next two years should the UK government cease providing exceptional financial support.

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Looking ahead to upcoming funding settlements, and the government’s planned reforms of local government, the NAO warns that short-term measures to address acute funding shortfalls have not addressed the systemic weaknesses in the funding model, with a whole system overhaul required.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, said: “Short-term support is a sticking plaster to the underlying pressures facing local authorities. Delays in local audits are further undermining public confidence in local government finances.

“There needs to be a cross-government approach to local government finance reform, which must deliver effective accountability and value for money for taxpayers.”

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open-source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

All eyes have been on Sir Keir Starmer as he held the most consequential news conference of his premiership so far.

By Donald Trump’s own admission, Sir Keir’s first trip to Washington as prime minister got off to an “outstanding start”.

The love-in between the prime minister and the US president continued on stage, as they heaped praise on each other and paid tribute to the special relationship.

Here Sky News takes you through the key moments from the conference.

Politics latest: Trump praises ‘tough negotiator’ Starmer after White House talks

Ukraine deal still in the balance

Sir Keir’s defining mission on this trip has been to try and persuade Mr Trump to provide a security guarantee for Ukraine in any peace deal reached with Russia, so that Vladimir Putin does not invade its neighbour again following an initial ceasefire.

It appears that no such deal has yet been reached – but the US president did say the White House was “working towards a very achievable ceasefire in Ukraine”.

“If you want peace, you have to talk both sides,” he said – which has not been the approach of the international community. “The next step we are making is toward a very achievable ceasefire.”

However, in language that may sound alarm in Kyiv, Mr Trump said: “If it doesn’t happen quickly, it may not happen at all.”

That statement may spark fear that the US president would be prepared to do a deal at any cost which would favour Vladimir Putin at the expense of Ukraine.

By contrast, Sir Keir struck a different tone and said: “History must be on the side of the peacemaker, not the invader.”

‘Very good chance’ of trade deal – and maybe no tariffs?

The main news takeaway from the conference was about trade.

Sir Keir has been at pains to charm Mr Trump into striking a good trade deal with the UK, following the wilderness years under former president Barack Obama when the UK was famously “at the back of the queue”.

As part of that, the prime minister is hoping the US will not impose punitive tariffs on the UK, as it minded to do with close neighbour Canada – because any such move would make his mission to grow the economy nigh on impossible.

Asked if Sir Keir had convinced him not to impose trade tariffs on the UK, Mr Trump said to laughter: “He tried.”

“He was working hard, I’ll tell you that,” he joked. “He earned whatever the hell they pay him over there, but he tried.”

He added: “I think there’s a very good chance that in the case of these two great, friendly countries, I think we could very well end up with a real trade deal where the tariffs wouldn’t be necessary. We’ll see.”

Talking of Canada…

Uh oh, Canada

Sir Keir was asked about the president’s recent comments about wanting to make Canada the 51st US state.

The prime minister gave the question short shrift, saying: “I think you’re trying to find a divide between us that simply doesn’t exist.

“We’re the closest of nations, and we had very good discussions today, but we didn’t discuss Canada.”

‘What a beautiful accent’

More praise came when Sir Keir said the UK was “ready to put boots on the ground and planes in the air” to support a deal on Ukraine working with allies.

“That is the only way peace will last,” he added

As he wrapped up his speech, Mr Trump remarked: “What a beautiful accent.

“I would have been president 20 years ago if I had that accent.”

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In it to win it

Throughout the conference, Sir Keir spoke in language that at times felt alien to his personality – he spoke in Trump rhetoric and appealed to his competitive spirit.

“We believe it’s not taking part that counts,” he said.

“What counts is winning. If you don’t win, you don’t deliver.

“We’re both in a hurry to get things done. And that’s what the UK and US do – when we work together, we win and we get things done.”