Ellie Willians

[SaintLoy]

A 22-year-old woman from Barrow-in-Furness has been found guilty of perverting the course of justice by lying about being trafficked by an Asian grooming gang and making false rape allegations against a series of white men.

Eleanor Williams, known as Ellie, sparked a worldwide solidarity movement when she posted graphic photos of herself on Facebook, alleging she had been beaten and raped by men who took her to sex “parties” around the north-west of England.

The post, made during the first Covid lockdown on 20 May 2020, prompted more than 100,000 people to join a Facebook group called Justice for Ellie. It birthed a line of merchandise featuring a purple elephant, her favourite animal, and prompted a crowdfunder, which saw more than 1,000 people donate £22,000 to help her and bring her abusers to justice.

Williams was found unanimously guilty of eight counts of perverting the course of justice. She will be sentenced on 13 and 14 March.

not a threat to society?!! 3 men tried to kill themselves.

people who do this often re-offend so she IS a risk to society.

Of course she's a threat to society. Her lies and manipulations caused a ripple-effect of false accusations, violence and criminal damage in Barrow. That is literally a threat to society.

She's also a danger to herself.

I'm sure she does have psychological/mental health issues and would benefit from extensive care/support/intervention. You could say that about a lot of criminals. Doesn't mean she shouldn't also be imprisoned for a bit.

If you ask Jordan he wouldn't agree with you. About 23 minuites in he talks to Piers about how it's f*ed his life up.

Would you be making excuses for a man accused of rape?

@Emotionalstorm

She is a threat to society.

3 of the men she accused tried to kill themselves.

Children including a local female reporter's child were threatened with serious harm.

Adults including those related to the the men she accused were threatened with serious harm.

Men she accused are suffering mental health issues due to her accusations and the treatment they received from the local community aka society.

People's livelihoods and property was destroyed due to her accusations.

She has screwed up a community aka society

She wasted police time plus court resources.

She conned well wishers aka society into collecting money for her - £22,000 - that her mother has not returned.

Oh and she would have got the help she needed if she had bothered talking to the second court appointed psychiatrist but I have an idea why she didn't. She didn't want to be risk being locked up in a secure mental hospital for an indeterminate period if found guilty after all using her own term she isn't a "psychopath"

Her mother still has the £20k raised from a Go fund me page. Disgusting.

Yes she does once it leaves the go fund me account it can't be paid back to those who donated unfortunately. Even offered it to a little girl's family with a terminal illness who only had 3 months to live. So they want to make memories. Even when she was told about her she refused to give it back. But when they found out who it was raised for they wouldn't accept it. But Shane has offered it to the Jamey Bulger charity and another.

Exactly this 👏👏👏mud sticks they wouldn't be saying that if they're husband, son or male relative was one of the men she falsely accused.

Ha. WUT.

Having worked in forensic mental health for years, the biggest difficulty of mine is people saying "they must be mentally ill" or "they need therapy".

Mental illnesses have diagnostic criteria, someone doing something we don't like or don't understand doesn't mean they're mentally ill.

But you dont need a diagnosis to potentially benefit from therapy. But what you do need, is to want to engage in therapy. Because you think there is something that therapy will help with. And if there's a type of therapy that will help.

If you don't, then therapy will not be an option. You can't force someone to have therapy. It's a lovely idea that there's some un-unamed vague 'therapy' that will give people the "help they need" but the reality is usually very different.

I think sometimes it's easier to believe someone is mentally ill rather than just plain evil (bit strong but I couldn't find another word today)

Note that she is appealing against her conviction. She still maintains that she was telling the truth despite clear evidence that she was not.

That means nothing to be honest. Everyone convicted when their plea was not guilty has the right to, and will be advised to appeal.
It's a legal right that should be exercised.
It doesn't mean that the person appealing says they're innocent (though that is often part of it). It's also a way of reviewing the case to ensure that it was appropriately investigated and prosecuted within the law.
It hopes to ensure the legal system is working correctly.

I didn't say appealing meant she was innocent, but she does insist she is.

However, to correct your post, there is no automatic right of appeal against a Crown Court conviction. The applicant (Williams in this case) first has to apply for leave to appeal. In order to get leave, the applicant must show that there is an arguable case, i.e. that the grounds of appeal have sufficient merit to allow the case to go to the full Court of Appeal. They must show that there was something seriously wrong with the trial process or that they have new evidence.

It is absolutely not the case that everyone convicted will be advised to appeal. You will only be advised to do so if your legal representatives think you have an arguable case. Of course, even if they advise against appealing, you can ignore their advice and appeal.

By the way, you can appeal even if you pleaded guilty, although it is harder to do so. You have to show that your guilty plea should not have been entered.

She just looks so young and has her whole life ahead of her. What good will it do to lock her up when she's not physically violent. It would be better just to mandate that she attend therapy until she is discharged. This will ruin her chances of finding a decent job

This is how you create a repeat offender. I think the state should consider showing more empathy and understanding. No one is going to believe her if she pulls this trick again anyway.

Has anyone just watched the documentary. I even started to believe her watching it, then I remembered it was a fabrication. Crazy.