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.
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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.
UK
890 people arrested at Palestine Action protest yesterday – including 17 on suspicion of assaulting police officers
The Metropolitan Police has said 890 people were arrested at a protest against the banning of Palestine Action as a terror group on Saturday – including 17 on suspicion of assaulting officers.
A total of 857 individuals were arrested in Parliament Square in London under the Terrorism Act 2000 over alleged offences, the force said.
It added that a further 33 were arrested for other offences, with 17 of those detained on suspicion of assaulting officers. The Met Police did not say what the other 16 arrests were for.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Claire Smart, who led the policing operation, thanked Met Police officers for their “professionalism and tireless work despite the level of abuse that they faced”.
Pic: PA
Ms Smart said: “The violence we encountered during the operation was coordinated and carried out by a group of people, many wearing masks to conceal their identity, intent on creating as much disorder as possible.
“Many of those individuals have now been arrested and we have begun securing charges.”
Defend Our Juries, which organised the demonstrations, insisted the rally was “the picture of peaceful protest”.
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‘Do I look like a terrorist?’ nurse at protest asks Sky News
Ms Smart also claimed that the “contrast between this demonstration and the other protests we policed yesterday, including the Palestine Coalition march attended by around 20,000 people, was stark”.
She added: “You can express your support for a cause without committing an offence under the Terrorism Act or descending into violence and disorder, and many thousands of people do that in London every week.
“We have a duty to enforce the law without fear or favour. If you advertise that you are intending to commit a crime, we have no option but to respond accordingly.”
Defend Our Juries previously estimated 1,500 had gathered for the rally on Saturday, where many held signs saying: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
Pic: PA
Pics: PA
The group has been banned as a terror group since 5 July after MPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of the move proposed by then-home secretary Yvette Cooper, making it illegal to express support for the group.
It came shortly after two Voyager aircraft suffered around £7m worth of damage at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on 20 June.
Defence Secretary John Healey told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that he expects newly appointed Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to be “just as tough” as her predecessor on Palestine Action.
He said: “I expect her to defend the decision the government has taken to proscribe Palestine Action because of what some of its members are responsible for, and were planning for.”
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The Met Police previously said the consequences for those charged under the Terrorism Act include a maximum sentence of six months’ imprisonment.
The Home Office is set to appeal against the High Court ruling allowing Palestine Action’s co-founder, Huda Ammori, to proceed with a legal challenge against the government over the group’s ban.
Defence Secretary John Healey has told Sky News the government is considering using military barracks to house asylum seekers, as an estimated 1,000 people arrived in the UK on small boats on Saturday.
“We are looking at the potential use of military and non-military sites for temporary accommodation for the people who come across on these small boats that may not have a right to be here,” he told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.
“I’m looking really hard at it. I’m looking at it with the Home Office, and I recognise that the loss of confidence of the public over recent years in Britain’s ability to control its borders needs to be satisfied. And we have to deal with this problem with the small boats,” Mr Healey added.
Politics latest: Labour considers housing migrants on military sites
The measure follows widespread protests this summer over housing migrants in hotels.
Fresh small boat arrivals were spotted on Sunday, after an estimated 1,000 people arrived on Saturday – when French authorities said 24 people were rescued while trying to cross the Channel.
The figures compare to a relatively recent lull in crossings. In the previous seven days (30 August to 5 September) the Home Office recorded no small boat arrivals.
Zia Yusuf, head of policy at Reform UK, told Trevor Phillips that Britain has become a “soft touch” on migration, before suggesting between 15 and 25 detention sites will need to be built to detain asylum seekers. He described these as “purpose-built modular steel structures”.
“We can look around the world at where things have worked and worked well. President Trump stood up 3,000 detention beds in eight days. That was this year in the state of Florida – using steel modular structures,” Mr Yusuf said.
He added that the president’s crackdown has significantly reduced illegal border crossings and suggested the same could happen in the English Channel to deter migrants.
“These are unarmed, largely men in dinghies, we don’t need a particularly formidable military to be able to take them to a detention centre,” he said.
Zia Yusuf from Reform UK said he believes Britain has become a “soft touch” on migration
Shabana Mahmood will have the job of tackling illegal immigration after taking over from Yvette Cooper as home secretary on Friday – when Sir Keir Starmer carried out a major cabinet reshuffle following the resignation of his deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.
National Crime Agency (NCA) figures show record levels of disruption of immigration crime networks in 2024/25.
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Officials believe this contributed to the lowest number of boats crossing the Channel in August since 2019.
But, despite the 3,567 arrivals in August being the lowest since 2021, when looking across the whole of 2025, the figure of 29,003 is the highest on record for this point in a year.
Sky’s Political Correspondent Liz Bates said that after Labour scrapped the previous government’s controversial Rwanda policy and shut down the Bibby Stockholm barge, ministers are “hitting up against many of the same problems” with “a really broken and very slow asylum system”.
“The context to all of this is a huge shake-up at the Home Office, and I think something of an admission that [Yvette] Cooper, despite her years of experience, could not get a grip… of this problem of people coming across the Channel in small boats and then ending up in asylum hotels,” she added.
Army bases were previously used by the Conservative government, but this prompted local protests, and the sites were widely criticised for their poor conditions in some cases.
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As Sky’s Home Editor Jason Farrell writes, Ms Mahmood has become the home secretary of a country where the national flag is being hoisted as a symbol of dissatisfaction – with anger at the arrival of desperate migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.
Sir Keir’s sweeping changes
Sir Keir Starmer has announced sweeping changes to his ministerial team in the Home Office as his government works to get a grip of illegal migration to the UK.
Here’s a list of who has been moved, besides the home secretary.
Dame Angela Eagle, who was border security and asylum minister, has been moved to the environment department.
Dame Diana Johnson, who was policing and crime minister, has been moved to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
She has said in a post on X that it was an “honour” to work with police officers, and she is “delighted” to be moving to the DWP.
Dan Jarvis has been given a role in the Cabinet Office, in addition to his post as security minister in the Home Office.
And Sarah Jones, who was industry minister, has been moved to the Home Office.
UK
Harry wants to put ‘trials and tribulations’ behind him in first UK visit in months – but will he meet the King?
Prince Harry will carry out a rare public engagement outside of London this week, as he heads back to the UK for a visit with “no negativity”.
After a tumultuous five years, the Duke of Sussex and his team are hoping this may be a trip that can help begin to “put the trials and tribulations behind them” and herald a reset, according to sources close to the royal.
It’s been confirmed the duke will be in Nottingham on Tuesday, visiting a youth organisation that he’s maintained strong personal contact with since moving to America.
Harry, who is no longer a working royal, is set to carry out a run of engagements and make a substantial donation to BBC Children in Need to support work tackling violence affecting young people.
Prince Harry, last seen in the UK in April 2025. Pic: AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali
It is not known if he will meet with his estranged brother, the Prince of Wales, or his father, the King.
The King is currently in Balmoral with the Queen, and so far, no engagements have been announced for the couple this coming week.
The monarch last met his youngest son face-to-face more than 18 months ago, when the duke made a transatlantic dash to see his father after hearing about his cancer diagnosis. The pair spent less than an hour together.
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Harry last visited the Community Recording Studio (CRS) in Nottingham’s St Ann’s area to mark World Mental Health Day in 2019, just two months before he and the Duchess of Sussex announced they were stepping down as senior working royals and moving to North America.
The Duke of Sussex last visited the Community Recording Studio in Nottingham in 2019. Pic: PA
He is planning to hold a private briefing with Children in Need, the Police and Crime Commission, the CRS and community outreach group Epic Partners in Nottingham, stage informal catch-ups with some of the young people he met before, and watch performances from CRS artists and make a short speech.
Harry appears to be focusing on his philanthropic ventures while his wife, Meghan, works on her lifestyle brand, As Ever. She is not expected to join him on the trip to the UK.
Meghan is not expected to join the duke on his trip. Pic: Netflix
Senior aides to the King and the duke were pictured together in London this July in what was reported to be an initial step towards opening channels of communication between the two sides.
Harry levelled repeated accusations at the King, Queen, William and Kate in his Oprah interview, Netflix documentary, and memoir Spare. But he outlined hopes for a “reconciliation” with his family in a BBC interview in May.
His sit-down with the BBC came in the wake of a court battle over his security in the UK. His level of security was changed after the couple stepped down as senior royals.
Harry took a legal challenge to the Court of Appeal, which he ultimately lost in May. He said he “can’t see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back” to the UK.
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