A woman who claimed she was the victim of an Asian grooming gang has been convicted of perverting the course of justice.
Eleanor Williams, 22, published pictures of her injuries and an account of being groomed, trafficked and beaten, on Facebook in May 2020, in a post which was shared more than 100,000 times.
Now, nearly three years later, a jury at Preston Crown Court has found her guilty of eight counts of doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice.
Jurors took three hours and 29 minutes to reach their verdicts following the 10-week trial. Honorary Recorder of Preston Judge Robert Altham adjourned sentencing to March 13 and 14.
The Facebook post sparked demonstrations in her home town of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, and led to former English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson visiting the town to "investigate" the claims.
Obsessed mum accused neighbour of running brothel and threatened to kill her
Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Stalker, of Cumbria Police, said Williams had produced "compelling evidence" when reporting her abuse, while her posts "caused uproar in the community".
During the trial, one man accused of rape by Williams told the court: "It can ruin your life and it has ruined mine."
Here, the Mirror looks at how the grooming gang lies which tore innocent lives apart were unravelled.
She posted photos of injuries she said were from being beaten, but the jury heard she inflicted the wounds on herselfWeapon that she used to attack herself was found nearby
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.
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.
But the prosecution claimed Williams caused the injuries to herself with a hammer, which was found with her blood on close by.
Jonathan Sandiford KC, prosecuting, said the incident was a "finale" to a series of false allegations made by Williams.
A Snapchat account she said was an abuser belonged to a friend
The allegations sparked demonstrations in her home town of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria (bbc.co.uk)The court also heard a Snapchat account which Williams claimed belonged to an Asian trafficker called Shaggy Wood was the account of a man called Liam Wood.
Mr Wood lived in Essex, worked in Tesco, and believed Williams to be a friend who lived in Portsmouth and was planning to visit him.
She used random names off the Internet and claimed they were victims
In his closing speech, the prosecutor told the jury: "The defendant goes online to her social media contacts and effectively finds random names on the internet she presents as being victims of trafficking or perpetrators."
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It was alleged Williams sent some messages to herself, making them appear as if they were from traffickers or fellow victims.
Jurors took three hours and 29 minutes to reach their verdicts (LancsLive/MEN)In other cases, she is alleged to have manipulated real people to send messages which she then said were from her abusers.
Some of the victims' names did not exist
During the trial, the jury was told that some of the people she made allegations about were real while others, the prosecution claimed, did not exist.
She claimed she was hired to do sex work in Amsterdam - but was in the UK
During the trial the jury heard evidence from business owner Mohammed Ramzan, who Williams claimed had groomed her from the age of 12.
During her evidence, Williams denied telling a "pack of lies" to the police and the juryUnder cross-examination, Mr Ramzan asked Louise Blackwell KC, defending: "Don't you think you have put my life through enough hell, or your client has?"
In what Mr Sandiford compared with a scene from Liam Neeson film Taken, Williams claimed Mr Ramzan had put her to work at brothels in Amsterdam and sold her at an auction there.
But the court heard at the time she was in Amsterdam, his bank card was being used at a B&Q in Barrow.
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