The mother of a young woman jailed yesterday for lying about being raped by a grooming gang said she was 'just trying to get people to listen to her’.
Eleanor Williams, 22, shared photographs of her injuries and an account of being groomed, trafficked and beaten in a viral Facebook post that sparked racist violence against the men she accused.
She had made accusations of sexual assault and trafficking against multiple men over a period of three years, and had been found by police in a field nor far from her home with multiple injuries and her eye swollen shut.
But on Monday she was sentenced to nearly eight and a half years in prison after she was found to have staged the attack herself and made false claims.
Officers had found a hammer near her home with her blood and DNA on it.
Speaking for the first time since her sentencing, Williams' mum Allison told Sky News: “[I'm] heartbroken.
"I can’t describe it. I still can’t take it in really. It just doesn’t feel real. The person the press are portraying is not the person I know.”
While she said she accepted that her daughter had told lies, she added: “I believe she was just trying to get people to listen to her.”
Her sister Lucy meanwhile told the broadcaster that she still believed someone else was responsible for the injuries, saying she had "never seen anything like" what happened to her.
She said: “One of the men was harassing Ellie at the bar and some of our friends had seen it and they’d warned him off.
"And there was a takeaway around the corner from the nightclub, and Ellie was coming home that night with me."
The man then grabbed her outside the takeaway, she claimed, and said "come on, we're going". Lucy said that Eleanor refused to go with him and instead returned home alongside her - but was "black and blue" with injuries when she saw her the following weekend.
On the evening of 19 May, Williams had been reported missing by her family and was seen soon afterwards by witnesses in a field near to her home.
She was found by officers with numerous injuries to her face and body and carrying a rucksack containing a bank card in her name.
Williams told officers she had been taken earlier that day in a silver Audi to an address in Barrow where she was raped by Asian men. She told officers the cuts she had received were from a knife used by one of her attackers.
However, thorough enquiries found no evidence to corroborate Williams' account, while evidence instead pointed to her injuries being self-inflicted.
Detectives worked to trace where the hammer had come from and found it was sold at Tesco in Hindpool Road in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Upon visiting the store, they found that the last purchase of such a hammer had been made on 11 May by debit card.
Jordan Trengove, who was falsely accused of rape by Williams, told Good Morning Britain hosts Ed Balls and Susanna Reid this morning that her lies had led him to attempt to take his own life.
Two other men also attempted suicide following the claims made against them, Preston Crown Court heard.
If you're struggling and need to talk, the Samaritans operate a free helpline open 24/7 on 116 123. Alternatively, you can email jo@samaritans.org or visit their site to find your local branch.
