Woman, 22, accused of lying about being raped by an Asian gang, posted the claims on Facebook to 'stop the abuse'
14 December 2022, 09:11 | Updated: 14 December 2022, 10:53
A woman accused of lying about being raped and trafficked by an Asian grooming gang says she posted the claims on Facebook to stop the abuse.
Eleanor Williams, 22, denies eight counts of perverting the course of justice by telling police she had been groomed and abused by a gang operating in her home town of Barrow in Cumbria.
Yesterday, jurors at Preston Crown Court heard how she had been found by police officers with several injuries, bleeding and bruised, on May 19, 2020.
She claimed that she was taken to a house by the gang where she had sex with three men and was then assaulted.
After she was released from hospital the next day, Williams posted pictures of her injuries and her detailed account of what happened on Facebook.
Within ’20 minutes’ she was arrested by officers for perverting the course of justice and was taken to a police station.
She told the court she posted the pictures because she was ‘sick of what was happening’ to her.
But the prosecution have accused her of lying, saying she inflicted the injuries herself with a hammer which was found nearby with her DNA on.
At court her defence barrister Louise Blackwell KC, asked: “What do you say about that?”
She replied: “I didn’t.”
In March 2020, the court heard how Williams was taken to A&E after overdosing on paracetamol.
She told the court she’d ‘had enough’, adding: “I didn’t know how to get out of the situation I was in, I was sick of constantly going to the parties, getting hurt, I just didn’t see any other way out of the situation I was in.”
She said she tried everything to get people to listen to her, including moving away and speaking to police. But when none of that worked, she added: “I thought the only way I could get out of it was to be dead.”
Williams told the court that she had been engaged to one of her abusers, Mahmun.
She described seeing him at parties where men paid to have sex with her and said it wasn’t a ‘relationship’ but ‘it was just so he could get a visa’.
When asked about any evidence of the relationship she said: “There was a ring, other than that no.”
She denied sending messages to herself pretending to be from one of the grooming gang.
The trial continues.
