A 22 year old woman from Cumbria who lied about being the victim of an Asian grooming gang has been convicted of perverting the course of justice.
Eleanor Williams claimed she had been groomed, trafficked and beaten – but prosecutors said her injuries were self-inflicted with a hammer.
A Facebook post showing her injuries was shared more than 100,000 times and led to demonstrations in her hometown and a visit by English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson to “investigate.”
Yesterday, a jury at Preston Crown Court found her guilty of eight counts of doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice.
Jonathan Sandiford KC, prosecuting, called her a serial liar.
He said: “The defendant goes online to her social media contacts and effectively finds random names on the internet she presents as being victims of trafficking or perpetrators.”
It was alleged she sent some social media messages to herself, making them appear as if they were from traffickers or other victims.
Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated on the latest news and updates from around the Muslim world!
In other cases, she was accused of manipulating real people to send messages which she then said were from abusers.
Jurors were also told about Williams’ claims that businessman Mohammed Ramzan had groomed her from age 12, making her work in brothels in Amsterdam and even selling her at an auction in the city.
Mr Ramzan told Williams’ lawyer during questioning: “Don’t you think you have put my life through enough hell, or your client has?”
Williams denied telling a “pack of lies” and told the court she wanted “people to know what was going on in Barrow, still is going on.”
She pleaded guilty to one count of perverting the course of justice at an earlier hearing, after contacting her mother and sister to ask them to take the hammer to her solicitor.
A jury of six men and six women took just three-and-a-half hours to find Williams unanimously guilty of eight counts of perverting the course of justice.
Wendy Lloyd, senior crown prosecutor with the north-west rape and serious sexual offence unit, said: “The impact on those falsely accused has been devastating and this conviction now fully exonerates the men who she accused of serious sexual abuse.
“Each of Eleanor Williams’s accusations were thoroughly investigated, until it became clear that they were completely and incontrovertibly untrue and made with malevolent intent.
“False accusations of this kind are very rare. This has been an unusual case and it is important for victims of rape or sexual assault to understand that they should never fear coming forward to report the crime to police.”
Williams will be sentenced in March.
