Warning: contains graphic content
A shocking case in which a woman lied about being kidnapped by a grooming gang is the focus of a BBC documentary airing tonight on BBC Three.
The case of Ellie Williams is one that gained international media attention after she claimed on Facebook to have been raped. Williams posted photos of her bruised face on social media, saying she had been beaten and forced to attend ‘sex parties’.
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She also made racially charged accusations of Asian men, particularly Pakistani men, who she said were ‘evil yet clever’.
A global campaign was started as a result, with huge repercussions in her local community in Barrow.
Hate crimes in the area tripled the following summer, with Cumbria police linking 151 crimes to the case in 2020 alone.
Williams had, however, made it up – going as far as to hit herself with a hammer to fake injuries.
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Liar: The Fake Grooming Scandal is a BBC documentary which goes into Williams’ fake allegations of being kidnapped and shows police footage of her in interviews in which she makes the horrifying allegations.
Much of the backlash came after Williams was arrested, charged with seven counts of perverting the course of justice and accused of making multiple false allegations.
One damning piece of information showed texts Williams received claiming to be from her 'perpetrators' mocking her for having been raped were found to have actually been accounts set up by Williams herself.
Three years later, she was convicted and sentenced to eight years in jail, a sentence she is still serving.
The documentary, released in January of 2024, featured never-before-seen police footage and interviews with officers who were integral to investigating her web of lies.
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Footage was shown of the first time Williams falsely accused a man, named Oliver Gardner, of rape at 16, with a police detective who interviewed her saying: “The majority of people would never lie about something like this so there's no reason not to believe somebody, but it's my job to establish the facts."
The second time she accused someone she was 18, with a video showing her with a bruise on her cheek.
She said in the interview: “He had a knife and was waving it around… [He] pulled me into the bathroom by my hair, stripped me naked and was hitting me with the shower head.”
This led to a man named Jordan Trengove spending 73 days in prison.
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Mohammed Ramzan was the final person who Williams accused, as she stated he was the head of an international grooming gang and first had sex with her when she was 12 or 13.
She also claimed he had then trafficked her and other young girls across the north west.
Ramzan did not know Williams and had met her briefly at a family party.
All three men accused are said to have attempted suicide as a result of the false claims.
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After being charged with lying about her allegations, Williams was given a curfew, but one night, she was found by police in a field.
This occurred following an encounter in which she was shown bloody and pretending to be intoxicated, stating she had been drugged and raped.
When Williams was found in the field she was in a terrifying state, with one eye so bruised and swollen she could not open it, a bloody lacerated finger, and marks all over her body. She claimed to have been raped by a group of Asian men, though a hammer was found in the field which had only her DNA on it.
It was believed by police that her wounds were all self inflicted, with one detective saying in the documentary: “My serious concern was that she was going to end up killing herself or come to some serious harm. I don't think it would have ever stopped.”
Hours after this incident her now infamous Facebook post was uploaded which led to her arrest.
The judge presiding over Williams’ case stated that they worried that genuine victims would be afraid to come forward due to her actions when sentencing her to eight years in prison.
Liar: The Fake Grooming Scandal is airing on BBC Three tonight at 9pm.
Topics: BBC, Crime, Social Media, TV and Film, TV
Michael Slavin