A woman who falsely claimed to have been the victim of a sex grooming gang and human trafficking has been convicted of perverting the course of justice.
Eleanor Williams posted pictures on social media of injuries she claimed had come after she'd been taken to a house and raped.
However, prosecutors said the injuries were self-inflicted with a blood-stained hammer found by police at her home.
Victims told the court how Williams had put them through hell and ruined their lives after falsely claiming she had been trafficked and beaten.
She claimed she had been passed around for sex "for years" across the North of England by an Asian gang who drugged her, beat her, blackmailed her and threatened her with weapons.
Williams, 22, of Teasdale Road in Walney, was found unanimously guilty of eight counts of perverting the course of justice at Preston Crown Court today. She also admitted a ninth count of perverting the course of justice prior to the beginning of the trial, after contacting her mother and sister to ask them to take the hammer to her solicitor.
Her Facebook post in 2020 was shared more than 100,000 times and sparked demonstrations in her home town of Barrow-in-Furness.
The court heard she had accused multiple men of rape going back to 2017.
During the trial, Williams was asked about several occasions when she was reported missing by her mother and was found injured and incoherent by police at locations across the north, including in Morecambe and Lancaster.
These included on November 29 2019, when officers found her collapsed and injured on the Millennium Bridge in Lancaster.
She was taken to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and told the jury she was “off her head” after being given drugs at a party.
A few days later she was found at Morecambe railway station, and again said she had been at parties where she had been forced to have sex with men.
On March 13 2020, a conductor on a train from Lancaster to Barrow spotted her dishevelled and called the police, worried for her welfare. She told the jury she had “done a runner” from a sex party in Lancaster, where three Asian men “cut my boobs”.
A selfie taken by Williams was shown to the jury, which she said showed the knife wounds on her breasts.
The image was produced by the defence and was not one examined by a forensic pathologist earlier in the trial, who concluded that Williams had repeatedly caused her own injuries.
Williams denied telling a "pack of lies" and told the court she wanted "people to know what was going on in Barrow, still is going on".
Honorary Recorder of Preston Judge Robert Altham adjourned sentencing to March 13 and 14.
Cumbria Police Head of Crime, Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Stalker, said: “It is important for people to understand that these were far from victimless crimes.
"Williams baselessly claimed she had been a victim of Asian grooming gangs and named specific individuals as being responsible for trafficking and abusing her – individuals who were found, following a thorough investigation, to have committed no such offences.
“In a number of cases, her claims led to innocent men being arrested by officers who, understandably, took such appalling allegations seriously. In one case a young man was arrested and held on remand.
“Williams had produced compelling evidence when reporting her abuse, whilst her posts on Facebook caused uproar in the community, increased community tensions and negatively impacted trust in the police. However, as detectives investigated her accounts, they found evidence that Williams had not only lied but had concocted evidence to support her allegations including creating fake Snapchat accounts and inflicting injuries on herself.
“Cases such as this, where someone has invented crimes and concocted evidence, are extremely rare.
“However, incidents of sexual abuse occur in every community and I can assure the public that we remain committed to doing everything in our power – alongside partner agencies – to stop such abuse before it occurs and bring perpetrators to justice when abuse has taken place.
"Anyone who has suffered physical or sexual abuse - whether recent or non-recent - is encouraged to pick up the phone and contact police today. They will be supported and their reports will be treated sensitively and investigated thoroughly by highly-trained detectives.
“Finally I would like to thank those people, particularly Williams’ victims, who showed great resolve in giving evidence in this case.”
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