EXCLUSIVE: Jailed fantasist received £55,000 of taxpayer cash
EXCLUSIVE: Jailed fantasist who attacked herself with a hammer to back up her lies that she had been raped and trafficked by Asian grooming gang received £55,000 of taxpayer cash
- EXCLUSIVE: £54,834 went to legal team of Eleanor Williams after false claims
- 22-year-old claimed she was groomed, trafficked and beaten by grooming gang
- Victim Mohammed Ramzan said the legal aid amount recieved was ‘outrageous’
A jailed fantasist who lied about being raped and trafficked by an Asian grooming benefited from nearly £55,000 in taxpayer’s money, legal aid figures reveal.
Some £54,834 went to the legal team of Eleanor Williams after she concocted a twisted web of lies accusing she had been groomed, trafficked and beaten.
Williams, 22, posted pictures on Facebook claiming to show injuries sustained at the hands of a gang – although she was later found to have inflicted these on herself.
The post, made during the Covid lockdown in May 2020, was shared more than 100,000 times online and sparked national outrage, leading to demonstrations in her hometown of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
In March she was sentenced to eight and a half years for her false rape claims.
Eleanor Williams sparked national outrage when she posted pictured of injuries she claimed had been caused by an Asian grooming gang
In March she was sentenced to eight and a half years for her false rape claims
Business owner Mohammed Ramzan, who Williams claimed had groomed her from the age of 12, was arrested over her lies and said he and his family received more than 500 death threats.
READ MORE: Revealed: How Eleanor Williams was raised by ‘good hearted family’ including local children’s champion and Labour councillor mother
After the case, he was left with £187,000 debt and ‘broken emotionally’, according to the Mirror.
Hearing how much Williams recieved in legal aid, he told MailOnline: ‘It’s ridiculous. It’s shocking. It’s devastating because there are actual victims that need that money, and yet that money is being allowed to her for fabricating a story.
‘This is outrageous – they have taken taxpayers’ money. It’s ludicrous.
‘100 per cent I think there should be some sort of order put in place that when she gets out that money has to be paid back.
‘What she has done to the real victims – if you look at the opinion of the sisterhood on this matter it’s absolutely crazy.’
Defendants must pass a strict means test before they are granted legal aid and the Ministry of Justice seek repayment of the fees if they are found guilty and can afford to.
A Legal Aid Agency spokesperson said: ‘Eleanor Williams did not receive a penny of this money – it went to lawyers so she could face justice and ultimately be imprisoned for her crimes.
Business owner Mohammed Ramzan, who Williams claimed had groomed her from the age of 12, was arrested over her lies and said he and his family received more than 500 death threats
After the case, he was left with £187,000 debt and ‘broken emotionally’
‘Without legal representation criminals could argue their trial was unfair and convictions could be quashed.’
READ MORE: ‘She’s destroyed me… and shown no remorse’: Two innocent men who were targeted by rape fantasist who lied about being victim of Asian grooming gang reveal how they were driven to brink of suicide by her false claims
Williams also raised £22,000 to cover the costs of her case through a Just Giving page set up by a local councillor.
But Shane Yerrell, 36, and many of those who donated were left outraged when Williams was jailed for eight and a half years last month after it became clear she had fabricated the allegations.
Her mother, Allison Johnston, 51, was forced to deny that she had taken the money for herself after Mr Yerril was only able to recover £7,158 of the funds – saying she donated £12,842 of the the remaining cash to two homeless charities.
Miss Johnston said the remaining £1204.11 was given to Ellie before her conviction to pay for therapy, with Mr Yerrell’s approval.
Williams was 19 years old when she claimed on Facebook she had been raped and abused by a grooming gang operation in the coastal town of Barrow.
It sparked protests and led to former English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson visiting the town to ‘investigate’ the claims.
Williams’ trial, which began in October last year, heard she had accused a number of men of rape, going back to 2017, and told police she was groomed and trafficked by an Asian gang.
Williams’ claims sparked protests and led to former English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson visiting the town to ‘investigate’ the claims
Williams had falsely accused multiple people of abusing her, with a jury finding her guilty of eight counts of perverting the course of justice
On May 19 2020, she was found by officers near her home on Walney Island with injuries which she claimed were inflicted by the gang after she was taken to a house in the town and raped.
READ MORE: Father, 22, who attempted suicide after fantasist Eleanor Williams falsely accused him of rape tells of his fury that people still take her side – despite her being jailed
But the prosecution claimed Williams caused the injuries to herself with a hammer, which was found with her blood on close by.
It was alleged Williams sent some messages to herself, making them appear as if they were from traffickers or fellow victims, and in other cases manipulated real people to send messages which she then said were from her abusers.
The jury was told some of the people she made allegations about were real, while others, the prosecution claimed, did not exist.
Her false stories had a profound impact on her six victims. At least one man told media he felt suicidal after being tarnished by the lurid accusations.
These included claims that she had been drugged and raped by multiple people since she was 12 years old, and that she had been trafficked to places such as Ibiza and Amsterdam and abused by men there.
Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC compared the allegation with a scene from Liam Neeson film Taken, where the main character tracks down a human trafficking gang that had abducted his daughter.
Amid heightened racial tensions one curry house had its windows smashed and a Muslim takeaway owner was chased down the street by men who poured alcohol on his head.
Williams denied telling a ‘pack of lies’ to the police and the jury, saying: ‘I wanted people to know what was going on in Barrow, still is going on’
After an 11-week trial at Preston Crown Court, Williams was convicted of eight counts of perverting the course of justice
It also painted a target on the backs of the men she accused. One man saw his wife leave him over the claims, while another family were forced to move away from the town altogether.
On another occasion she accused a man of threatening to kill her unless she had sex with eight men in Blackpool, local newspaper The Mail reported.
But this was another fabrication, with CCTV showing she booked herself into a hotel and then stayed inside apart from a brief walk to the shops.
She accused another man, Jordan Trengove, of raping her – an allegation that led to him spending ten weeks on remand in prison.
He was finally cleared when police realised he had been in the back of one of their vans at the exact time he was supposed to have raped her – he had been arguing at a taxi rank when he was spotted by officers.
Evidence that she posted on social media, including messages from the men who were alleged to have abused her, were found to be misleading or outright false by police.
During her evidence, Williams denied telling a ‘pack of lies’ to the police and the jury.
Asked about her Facebook post, she said: ‘I wanted people to know what was going on in Barrow, still is going on.’
But the jury did not believe her, instead finding her guilty of making the claims up and causing her own injuries as part of a fantasy.
She had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to one count of perverting the course of justice, which related to contacting her sister and mother with requests for them to take a hammer to her solicitor.
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