A 22-year old girl from Barrow has been sentenced to eight
and half years’ imprisonment for perverting the course of justice.
Eleanor Williams, claimed that she had been raped by multiple
men and trafficked for sex by Asian grooming gangs. She posted pictures of her
injuries on Facebook, but her injuries had been self-inflicted using a hammer.
Detectives initially believed that they were dealing with Cumbria's
biggest-ever grooming ring. But by checking flight records, CCTV footage, and
mobile phone data, they became convinced that Williams had made most of her
story up.
The lies she told and the allegations she made against
people, led to people receiving death threats, being attacked, harassed, and
being verbally abused in the street. Some considered taking their own lives
after being falsely accused by Williams. It also led to protests from the
far-right racist Tommy Robinson and the English Defence League, who visited
Barrow. A far-right campaign group called 'Patriotic Alternative', started to
campaign against immigration to the town. Asian pharmacists, GP's, and nurses,
expressed fear for their safety.
When Williams first appeared at Preston Crown Court in June
2020, dozens of supporters wearing "Justice
for Ellie Hoodies" protested outside the court and shouted
"scum" at journalists. One of Williams's prominent supporters was
Maggie Oliver, the former Greater Manchester police officer, who turned whistle blower
to expose sex abuse in Rochdale. A crowd funder started by a local councillor
in Essex, raised £22,000 for Williams. Yet, William's allegations of rape,
Asian grooming, and sex trafficking, all turned out to be a pack of lies, a
figment of her fertile imagination.
Despite undergoing a psychiatric assessment, Williams has
never explained her motives for concocting the false rape allegations. The
judge that sentenced her, Robert Altham, said: "It is troubling to say the least that she shows no significant signs of
remorse." There had been speculation that Williams might have been
suffering from "fictitious disorder", previously known as Munchausen
Syndrome, a psychological condition where a person deceives others by appearing
to be sick or by inflicting self-injury to get attention.
Cumbrian police say that they encounter people who tell lies
all the time, but not to the extent that Williams went to, in her narrative of
being a victim of multiple rape and sex trafficking. Despite the damage that
Williams caused to community relations in Barrow, Simon Fell, the MP for
Barrow, believes that Williams needs support. He said: "No one does what she did to her body, and
makes up stories that she made up and goes to the lengths she went to, without
being someone who is broken in some way and quite damaged."
Judge Robert Altham said that while Williams's allegations of
a rape had been a "complete fiction",
unless she chose to say why she told lies, we would never know her motives for
doing so.
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