Eleanor Williams

Eleanor Williams (born 26 November 2000) is an English convicted criminal, from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England who made false claims of multiple serious crimes, including accusations of trafficking, rape by a group of men of Asian descent, blackmail, and physical violence, none of which were found to have occurred. Following her 2022 trial, Williams was found guilty on nine counts of perverting the course of justice, contrary to English common law. She was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison, but was released early on licence after serving one year and ten months.

The fictitious claims spread by Williams on the internet had lasting impacts, including multiple attempted suicides and a rise in racially motivated violence against the Asian community, and contributed to aspects of the Online Safety Act 2023, which criminalises the spread of harmful false information online.

Background Eleanor Williams was born on 26 November 2000. Williams reportedly had difficulties in her childhood and self-harmed from a young age. At the time of her trial, she was living in Teasdale Road on Walney Island.

Second, third and fourth allegations In 2019, Williams made three allegations against Jordan Trengove. After a night out with Trengove, on 8 and into 9 March 2019, Williams alleged that Trengove had taken her to an address and raped her.

On 6 May Williams called police, stating she had been attacked that day. Whilst feigning reluctance to tell police what had happened, she later made the allegation about what happened in March and also on 6 May. In relation to 6 May, Williams stated that Trengove had arrived at her flat and after not leaving, had threatened her with a knife, beat her with a shower head and raped her. Williams presented with bruises on her legs. Police arrested and interviewed Trengove, before he was bailed.

On 18 May 2019, Williams called police again, stating that she had returned to her flat after a night out and Trengove had entered her flat through a door she had left unlocked for a friend. She alleged Trengove had hit her face and body, before raping her. Police located her with injuries. Trengove was arrested and remanded in custody until August 2019.

Williams claimed Ramzan began a sexual relationship with her when she was 12 or 13 years old, grooming her to have sex with other men. Williams alleged that Ramzan had "begged" her to have sex with a friend of his, telling her that she would be doing a "massive favour" for him. Williams told police she had sex with his friend and stated Ramzan had told her it would only happen once, but that was not the case and it happened more frequently. She explained she discovered that Ramzan would get money whenever she had sex with other men. She stated that Ramzan would take her to parties, where there were other girls and she met other men in Barrow, Rochdale and Oldham and other places. She wrote the names of 60 girls who she had been to addresses with. Many were verified by police as living in Barrow.

Officers searched the field where Williams was located and found a bloodstained hammer. DNA testing showed the only DNA present was Williams. A further eight hammers were seized from Williams' home address. After the post went viral, over £22,000 was crowdfunded by Epping Forest Council local councillor Shane Yerrell for a private prosecution against the (fictitious) grooming gang. Williams' mother held onto the money during the trial, stating that it was for an appeal. Yerrell then started legal proceedings. Williams' mother donated the funds to The Salvation Army and Refuge, with multiple other charities refusing to take the money.

Trial and sentencing Williams' trial was held at Preston Crown Court in October 2022. In relation to apparent self-inflicted injuries, Williams stated under cross-examination "I wouldn't buy a hammer to hurt myself, I'm not a psychopath."

Williams was originally scheduled to be released from custody in February 2025, at the halfway point of her sentence. This was calculated including the time she had spent on remand. In January 2025 she was released early on licence, after serving 1 year and 10 months. From her release, she is subject to a five-year serious crime prevention order.

Impact of false accusations

Alleged 'suspects'

'C' The first, unnamed man (only known as 'C' at Williams trial) stated how frightening it was for him to be wrongly accused, arrested and kept in a police station. Wrongly accused of being a rapist, 'C' stated he did not go to Barrow town centre and had removed himself from social media. Fearing what people were saying, he could not pick his son up from nursery. He described Williams' false allegation against him as "the worst experience of his life", stating that he did not think he would ever recover.

Jordan Trengove Trengove's house had the word "rapist" spray painted on it, with his mother having to leave the house. After being released from prison, he still had to face bail conditions, meaning he could not live at his home address. On returning to Barrow, Trengove faced strangers abusing him in the street and became isolated. In August 2020, he attempted to end his own life and was on anti-depressant medication, losing his self-confidence and unable to work. After the allegations, Trengove had a child, which resulted in a number of anonymous phone calls being made to social services, informing them he was a rapist and not safe to be with his child. Having recently moved addresses at the time of the trial, his new neighbour stated he did not want Trengove living there, calling him a rapist.

Mohammed Ramzan

Two weeks after being arrested, Ramzan was described as being in "such despair", that he attempted to end his life in front of his family, resulting in him sustaining an injury, leaving scars. Sections of the community in Barrow targeted him, smashing his vehicle's windows and damaging the tyres. He and his family had to move out of their home for some time, with effects on his family, including his children.

Local Asian community Williams' claims heightened racial tensions across Britain; Cumbria Police reported dealing with over 150 extra crimes following her post, of which they considered 83 to be hate crimes. The senior investigating officer for the case said that he was "shocked" at the level of racism the accusations caused. As of March 2023, hate crime in the area had not yet decreased to the pre-2020 levels. In a court statement, Williams stated that she did not want Robinson to come to Barrow, and that she was "devastated" by the impact her post had on the community.

Local newspaper The Mail Due to its reporting of the case, the local paper The Mail was subjected to boycotts. The paper later collapsed for financial reasons, Other victims of abuse, including Sammy Woodhouse from the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal, claimed Williams' false allegations "caused harm" to survivors and will deter others from coming forward.

Online Safety Act 2023 In 2023, Conservative MP Simon Fell raised the consequences of Williams' case to justice ministers in Parliament. He said that the virality of her claims and its social media spread prevented the police from adequately doing their job. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Courts and Legal Services, Mike Freer, responded that the government intended to create two new offences in the Online Safety Bill (passed as the Online Safety Act 2023 in October) to address the issue. This includes criminalising "communications where a person sends information that they know to be false with the intention of causing harm".

Documentaries The case was the subject of the BBC Three documentary Liar: The Fake Grooming Scandal, broadcast on 17 January 2024, which was broadcast again, on BBC Two, on 31 January.

In January 2025, Channel 4 broadcast a three-part documentary series about the case called Accused: The Fake Grooming Scandal. The series focussed heavily on Williams' viral Facebook post and its effect on the community and the ongoing police investigation. It includes interviews with Mohammed Ramzan, Nicola Ramzan, Jordan Trengove and Shane Yerrell.

On 25 March 2024, Sky News released a six-part podcast series under its StoryCast title called Unreliable Witness, featuring interviews with Ellie Williams' mother and sister.

Post-trial developments It later emerged that a man and his two brothers mentioned by Williams during the trial had been subsequently convicted of multiple offences of child abuse, with two receiving life sentences. Williams had mentioned their names in court as being among those who had abused her, but they were not part of the group of five that she had been convicted of lying about. Another man named by Williams' mother in relation to the brothers, and whose name appears in Williams' diary, had also been convicted of sexual assault.