In May 2020, a teenage girl went viral on Facebook after posting harrowing images of her bruised and battered face and body. The girl, Ellie Williams, claimed she had been the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of ‘an Asian grooming gang’.
In the post, which was shared more than 100,000 times, Ellie described being beaten, raped and trafficked multiple times by the men. As her post racked up more and more views, protests started to spread from her hometown of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria to elsewhere in the UK as the public demanded justice for Ellie.
What people didn’t realise at the time was that her post was a lie. Ellie had made the allegations up, and in March 2023, she was sent to jail for perverting the course of justice.
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On Tuesday night, Channel 4 will air the first of three episodes in a new documentary series exploring the case. The documentary, entitled Accused: The Fake Grooming Scandal, will feature interviews with some of the men Ellie accused as well as other key players.
What allegations did Ellie Williams make?
In the Facebook post that sparked national outrage, Ellie claimed she had been the victim of a grooming gang, describing how she had allegedly been beaten, abused and trafficked by Asian men. The 1,300-word Facebook post detailed a fabricated account of years of sexual exploitation.
Alongside it, she shared pictures of severe injuries, including a swollen eye, cut finger and injuries to her legs and abdomen, which she claimed were inflicted by the gang. However, evidence heard in court found the injuries had been caused to herself with a hammer she had purchased from Tesco earlier in the month.
Ellie claimed the grooming gang inflicted punishment beatings on their victims, describing how one girl nearly died as a result of a beating. She claimed that another victim had had a dog set on her.
One of the men Ellie falsely accused was local business owner Mohammed Ramzan. Ellie claimed she had been groomed by him since the age of 12 or 13 and that he had taken her across the region and persuaded her to have sex with other men.
Ellie Williams on police body-cam footage -Credit:Cumbria Police/BBC
She told police she had been taken to Amsterdam by Mr Ramzan, forced to work in a brothel and nearly sold at an auction for €25,000. A court later heard that although Ellie had been in Amsterdam at the time, she had shared a hotel room with her sister and sister’s boyfriend, while Mr Ramzan’s bank card was being used at a B&Q in Barrow.
Ellie also falsely accused Oliver Gardner of trafficking her after a chance encounter in Preston city centre. She said he had forced her to take cocaine, sold her to two Asian men and raped her. Jordan Trengove was also falsely accused of rape, and spent time in custody due to her false allegations.
Ellie’s web of lies went even further as she fabricated evidence to support her claims, creating fake social media profiles to send messages to herself which she claimed were from her abusers.
What impact did her allegations have?
The allegations led to “public displays of mass anger” in Barrow, according to local police in Cumbria. Protests were held outside the police station and on a retail park.
English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson was one of the people who turned up in the town to demonstrate and “investigate” the claims.
Local MP Simon Fell said he received a “deluge” of messages from constituents in the aftermath of the Facebook post. He said they came from “parents concerned for their children, teachers for the community, community leaders concerned about Barrow’s reputation” and from some of the accused as well.
“As with any story like this,” he added. “The vultures began to circle – those who make their money and reputations out of others’ misery, whether selling books or advertising on their websites. The far right were the most obvious and insidious, with the indignity of Tommy Robinson whipping up tensions still further in pursuit of ‘justice’ being perhaps the icing on the cake.”
He said families whose lives had been “torn apart” by the allegations started to show up at his surgeries. People’s lives had been “ruined” as a result of the lies, some had received death threats and Barrow had been “put through the wringer”, the MP said.
In court, it was revealed that three of the men she had accused had tried to take their own lives following her allegations.
Mr Ramzan told the court his life had been made “hell on earth” and two weeks after he was arrested he attempted to take his own life. He said his property had been damaged and his businesses had been “ruined” after he and his family were targeted “in the most horrendous way”.
Mr Trengove said the word “rapist” had been spray painted across his house and his window was smashed. He said he tried to end his life in August 2020. Mr Gardner also tried to end his life and was later sectioned over the false accusations.
Did she go to jail?
In January 2023, a jury found Ellie Williams guilty of eight counts of doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice. Jurors took three hours and 29 minutes to reach their verdicts following the 10-week trial.
At the age of 22, she was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in jail for making a series of false rape allegations. She looked straight ahead and thanked the judge after he sentenced her.
Ellie was jailed in March 2023 -Credit:AP
Why did Ellie lie?
It is still unclear why Ellie told the lies she did. In his sentencing remarks in court, Honorary Recorder of Preston Judge Robert Altham said there is no explanation for the the allegations, which he described as “complete fiction”.
He added: “Unless and until the defendant chooses to say why she has told these lies we will not know.”
Louise Blackwell KC, who defended Ellie in court, said her client had maintained the allegations were true. She added: “Other than her personal vulnerabilities and her age there doesn’t appear to be any motivation at all.”
The first of three episodes of Accused: The Fake Grooming Scandal airs on Channel 4 on Tuesday, January 7, at 9pm