EVIL SCAM
My life was torn apart after fantasist Eleanor Williams claimed I raped her – how she convinced police is chilling
VERY little happened in Barrow-in-Furness to trouble the national news agenda – until one case shocked the Cumbrian town to its core.
Eleanor Williams, 22, claimed four men raped, attacked and even trafficked her for sex when she was just 12 years old.
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She posted pictures of her injuries showing her face and much of her body severely bruised and battered and part of her finger cut off.
But there was a problem. None of it was true.
Devious Williams had weaved a complex web of lies using multiple fake social media accounts — and even attacked HERSELF.
This week justice finally caught up with her and she was sent to prison for eight years for eight counts of perverting the course of justice.
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But for the men she accused, the scars run deep.
One victim, young dad Jordan Trengove, 22, attempted suicide after locals believed Williams’ lies.
His house was spray painted with the word “rapist”,
Speaking of his ordeal just hours after she was sentenced, Jordan told The Sun: “She was getting so much support and there was so much grief.
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“I wanted away from it all.
“I took an overdose but survived.
“Even now there are still believers on her side.
“This destroyed us all.”
Many in the town still believe that Williams was telling the truth.
Last night a post supporting Williams on the Justice For Ellie Facebook group received more than 100 likes.
In 2017, Cameron Bibby became the first man she targeted.
She went on to make false claims of rape, violence and sex trafficking against local businessman Mohammed Ramzan.
The other man who she preyed on was Oliver Gardner, who also considered taking his own life.
Mentally damaged
Williams was so desperate to prove she had been attacked that in May 2020 she cut off part of her finger, pummelled her eye with a hammer and bruised much of her body.
But her lies began to unravel, helped by Mohammed who went to huge lengths to prove his innocence.
The 43-year-old built a 10ft long “crime board” in his home with social media posts, phone messages and bank account transactions that showed his accuser was making up claims that she had been forced to work in a brothel in Holland.
Williams claimed Cameron had forced her to have sex at a house party in Barrow when she was 16.
She created a Snapchat social media account in his name and then sent a fake confession.
He was arrested and spent six months on bail before the case was dropped.
Her next victim was Jordan, who had briefly met Williams at a local nightclub in March 2019.
She claimed he drugged and raped her that night.
He was charged — but in reality they had gone their separate ways after leaving the venue.
Jordan proved he had gone to a friend’s house and been picked up by cops for an “altercation” at a taxi rank when he was supposed to have been with Williams.
He says: “I probably had the most solid alibi.
“But the police still tried to argue with me.”
When Williams made a second complaint against him in May 2019, cops arrested him.
He was held on remand for ten weeks in a sex offenders wing,
Two months later, Mohammed was pulled over by the police and told he was being arrested on suspicion of sex trafficking.
Williams claimed that the local businessman, who had a restaurant and ice cream van, had groomed her since she was 12, giving her near-fatal beatings.
He was not charged with any offence, but spent every day proving his innocence.
Mohammed recalls: “I thought I was being pulled over for speeding, but they handcuffed me.”
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Williams claimed Mohammed had sold her for auction in Amsterdam, but he was able to prove he was in a B&Q store in Barrow on that date.
Mohammed says: “I had a 10ft crime wall, with Blu Tack holding up social media posts she made and what I had been doing.
“I rang the police every day with new evidence.”
Her tales of being forced to have sex with men in Ibiza, Holland and Blackpool had echoes of the BBC Rochdale grooming scandal drama Three Girls, Liam Neeson’s hit action blockbuster Taken and the Ben Affleck thriller Gone Girl.
Williams gave detectives the names of around 60 girls that she alleged had been trafficked by Mohammed — but none of them said it was true.
Mohammed and his family lived in constant fear with the police taking threats against them seriously.
He says: "We had death threats, people said they were going to burn my house down, rape my wife in front of me, burn our rental propertiores, our vehicles were targetted.
"The police had to fit fire letter boxes, smoke letter boxes, and smoke alarms. We had fire extinguishers in every room.
"I was absoluterly petrified."
Her final victim was Oliver Gardner, who had given her a cigarette on a night out in Preston, , on July 18, 2019.
She accused him of rape and selling drugs for a grooming gang.
Oliver was left so mentally damaged by her lies that he was sectioned.
As more of her claims were knocked down and disputed, her lies finally caught up with her.
But after she was charged, Williams made a 1,300-word Facebook post alleging she had been attacked by Asian sex traffickers.
In order to convince the public of this lie, she bought a hammer and struck herself repeatedly.
The post was shared 100,000 times and within three days far-Right Patriotic Alternative thugs had descended on Barrow to protest.
Mohammed, who received hundreds of death threats and is now trying to rebuild his business, says the extreme racists are still there.
He says: “Patriotic Alternative have got a stronghold now.”
The group, which has called for non-white people to be paid to leave Britain, ignored the fact that three of the men that Williams accused were white.
Hate crimes tripled in Barrow, Asian businesses had their windows smashed and death threats were taken seriously.
Marches were organised to protest about a suspected police cover-up.
The fire service installed smoke alarms at vulnerable premises, fearing arson attacks.
‘Bad rather than mad’
Police officers and social workers were accused of a cover-up, and subjected to abuse and online threats.
The local newspaper was faced with boycotts before it collapsed for financial reasons.
Far-Right fanatics have taken advantage of the lack of hope in Barrow, where 12 people died from drug abuse last year, a fifth of kids live in child poverty and one in ten adults is unemployed.
Mass unemployment towards the end of the 20th Century led to a decline, and today much of the former industrial town’s centre has an air of neglect.
Today, the atmosphere in Barrow is not helped by Williams’s councillor mum Allison Johnston, who has claimed that her daughter was a “victim of abuse and trafficking”.
Others are angry about being conned by Williams, with more than £20,000 being donated to a Justice For Ellie campaign.
One man, who did not wish to give his name, says: “It’s shocking.
“I donated money.
“I saw the injuries. How could I not believe her?”
The one question that everyone is trying to answer is why Williams did it.
Jordan says: “I really don’t know why Eleanor picked on me.
“That’s one thing I really want to know.”
Mohammed, who was friends with Williams’ family, suspects he was targeted due to his business and people’s long held prejudices against the Asian community.
Psychiatrists assessed Williams, but decided she was not suffering from a mental disorder.
Mohammed says: “I think she’s bad rather than mad.”
In court, Judge Robert Altham said he was offered “no explanation” why Williams tried to get the four men locked up and said she showed “no significant sign of remorse”.
He added that there was also a risk that, thanks to her actions, “genuine victims” of sex offences would not come forward.
The judge said of Mohammed: “He has been unable to sleep and, to this day, fears for his safety.”
“His businesses were ruined.
“He describes going from a successful businessman to someone who has virtually nothing.”
Both Mohammed and Jordan believe that social media giants have a lot to answer for.
Williams was able to set up bogus accounts in the names of the people she was accusing of attacking her.
Jordan says: “Social media should have to verify accounts with ID because she used so many fake accounts.”
Even today, despite her conviction, many locals are posting messages saying that Williams is innocent.
With her cruel lies having infected the community, Jordan no longer wants to stick around.
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He says: “I have said to my partner I want to move out of the area ready for when Ellie is released.”
- Additional reporting: Thea Jacobs
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