From the Barrow-in-Furness Mail:
A WOMAN who claimed she was the victim of an Asian grooming gang has been convicted of perverting the course of justice.
Eleanor Williams, 22, published pictures of her injuries and an account of being groomed, trafficked and beaten, on Facebook in May 2020, in a post which was shared more than 100,000 times.
…Jonathan Sandiford KC, prosecuting, said the incident was a “finale” to a series of false allegations made by Williams.
Williams, also known as Ellie Williams, had been charged with perverting the course of justice in March 2020, several weeks before her sensational Facebook post. At the time, it was not completely clear whether her pictures related to her original claims or to a new development, although it was reasonable to assume the latter and this was in due course confirmed. It struck me as unlikely that individuals who had just seen their accuser charged with perverting the course of justice would help her case by conveniently providing evidence in her favour, in the form of new injuries and threatening messages, but in accordance with rules of sub judice and principles of natural justice it would have been imprudent to comment publicly.
Williams’s supporters, however, had no such qualms: it was taken for granted that she had been arrested as part of a police cover-up, and that the local paper was colluding in this. Local journalists were threatened (as I noted at the time); the Mail reported that
The strength of feeling in Barrow has been so strong businesses have been ordering posters to display their support, online trolls have been targeting anyone deemed unsupportive of the campaign and vandals have been leaving derogatory graffiti about the police on walls in the town.
Tommy Robinson made an appearance (against the wishes of Williams’s family), local Asian businesses were attacked and the men she had accused were subjected to online and real-world vilification. The Facebook “Justice for Ellie” campaign, according to the Guardian, “led to a line of merchandise featuring a purple elephant, her favourite animal, and prompted a crowdfunder, which saw more than 1,000 people donate £22,000”.
The narrative frame was set by MailOnine (connected to the London Daily Mail, and not related to the Barrow-in-Furness Mail), which in May 2020 ran an article headlined “Girl, 19, is charged with perverting course of justice after telling police she was drugged and raped by Asian sex gang in Cumbria”. This account was picked up by Maggie Oliver, a former police officer who is a household name due to her involvement with exposing a predominately Asian grooming gang in Rochdale. Referring to the article, she wrote on Twitter “Far easier to blame the victim than embark on a complex investigation” (when in fact there had already been a year-long investigation), and when asked about why the story had not received wider coverage, she suggested that “the authorities are very powerful and close down MSM” (1). Oliver’s efforts to promote the “Justice For Ellie” campaign were also commended by the celebrity television presenter and activist against anti-semitism Rachel Riley. Neither has so far commented on the outcome.
Tommy Robinson, however, is complaining that the “scum sly sky news media” had failed to mention “the fact I knew she was guilty and said as much BEFORE the verdict from my investigation into her allegations” – this is disputed by Amy Fenton, a journalist who had to have police protection for writing objectively about the case, who writes: “I’ve never heard such rubbish in my life. You weren’t saying this when you were barking your racist nonsense through a megaphone and demanding I explain myself were you Tommy Robinson? What a load of nonsense this is. And I do have evidence of what you said and did at the time” (Robinson denies being racist).
Also worth noting is the response of Sarah Champion MP. In 2018, responding to another controversial case that garnered a lot of publicity but no prosecutions, she expressed the strong view that journalists should “believe the victim”; now, however, she writes that she declined to support Williams because “something always seemed off”.
The Barrow-in-Furness Mail also has a companion article entitled “Eleanor Williams: How Fer ‘Web of Lies’ was Debunked”, which outlines the case against her. In particular, she was shown to have fabricated Snapchat messages, and her accounts of having been trafficked to Blackpool, Ibiza and Amsterdam were debunked by CCTV, flight records and witnesses respectively. As for her sensational injuries uploaded in May 2020, these were found to be consistent with a hammer – she had purchased such an item a week beforehand, and this was found in a field near her home with her DNA on it.
Also, one person she had accused was actually in a police van at the time of an alleged rape, following an altercation at a taxi-rank. In this case, Williams’s allegation was not related to “grooming” claims, and the man concerned, Jordan Trengove, has given an account to the Guardian. Another victim, known as Mo Rammy, has meanwhile been interviewed by the Mail.
For a more detailed discussion of the case, see Spin vs Truth, which describes Williams as “the female Carl Beech”.
UPDATE: Spin vs Truth also notes that those who supported the “Justice for Ellie” campaign included none other than Oliver’s former associate Jon Wedger, and that Wedger claimed to be in contact with Williams’s family. Wedger’s advocacy on behalf of Williams in online videos while the matter was sub judice apparently led to a warning from the Attorney General about contempt of court.
Note
1. Maggie Oliver’s willingness to jump to conclusions about a cover-up reflect the fact that despite her mainstream profile she is also involved with the figures in the conspiracy milieu, as I discussed here and here. More recently, she has commended the the anti-Covid vaccination alarmist Aseem Malhotra.
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