The mother of a young woman who falsely claimed to have been the victim of an Asian grooming gang has spoken out after her daughter was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in jail.
Eleanor Williams, of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, was sentenced at Preston Crown Court on Tuesday after making a series of false rape allegations which led to three of the accused men attempting suicide after being arrested over the claims.
In a Facebook post in May 2020, Williams posted pictures of brutal injuries she said were inflicted by an Asian grooming gang, but the court heard that she had caused them to herself.
Her mother, Allison Johnston, a former Labour councillor, was in court as the judge handed down the sentence.
Speaking after her daughter was sent down, Ms Johnston 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.”
Asked why her daughter told such lies, she added: “I believe she was just trying to get people to listen to her.”
In separate comments to LBC, Ms Johnston said: “I was just expecting a longer prison sentence for Ellie. I think the judge has been really fair in taking into account her age and her vulnerabilities.”
When asked how she felt about hearing the allegations in court, she replied: “It was really hard to listen to, as a mother it’s difficult to accept she’s responsible for all the things that he said. But in the eyes of the law I’ve got to accept that. There’s an appeal going in so we’ll have to wait and see what comes of that.”
Williams’ sister Lucy also spoke to Sky. Though she accepted the evidence of the accused men who appeared in court, Lucy claimed she did believe Williams had been harmed by men on other occasions.
Lucy claims Williams received “constant” and “very weird” phone messages as well as threatening Snapchats.
She conceded her sister was not auctioned during a trip to Amsterdam, as was claimed, as they shared a room and nothing was out the ordinary.
But they did have other experiences, Lucy claims.
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.
“He grabbed her outside of the takeaway and started pulling her arm, saying: ‘Come on, we’re going.’
“And she was like: ‘No, I’m going with my sister’, and his face, he was so angry with her. She did come home with me, and then the next weekend she came back black and blue, worse than we’ve ever seen.
Lucy added that she was the one to urge Williams to go to the police after seeing the extent of her injuries.
In sentencing remarks which were broadcast on television, Honorary Recorder of Preston Judge Robert Altham said: “It is troubling to say the least that she shows no significant signs of remorse.”
He said there is no explanation for why the defendant made the allegations, which he described as “complete fiction”.
He added: “Unless and until the defendant chooses to say why she has told these lies we will not know.”
In January, a jury found Williams guilty of eight counts of doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice. She pleaded guilty to a ninth count at an earlier hearing.
