Woman staged hammer attack to claim she was victim of Asian grooming gang, court hears
A woman accused of lying about being the victim of an Asian grooming gang staged a “finale” to her story when she injured herself with a hammer and posted an account on Facebook, a court has heard.
Eleanor Williams, 22, denies perverting the course of justice by telling police she had been raped by a number of men and trafficked and abused by a grooming gang.
In his closing speech at Preston Crown Court (pictuerd) on Tuesday, Jonathan Sandiford KC, prosecuting, compared part of Williams’ account to the Liam Neeson film Taken.
He told the jury: “Eleanor Williams is a liar. She is a person who is prepared to tell very significant lies in a variety of different circumstances.”
The court has heard Williams was found injured near her home in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, on May 19 2020 and told police she had been taken to a house in the town, raped and attacked.
The following day the defendant, who was on bail having already been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice, posted photos of her injuries and an account of being groomed on Facebook.
Mr Sandiford said: “The prosecution say this is the finale – that is how it is intended by the defendant.
“This was the event that was going to show to all the world that she had been victim of trafficking, that she was wrongly accused by police.”
The court has heard a hammer, with Williams’ blood on it, was found close to where she was seen by police officers.
Pathologist Alison Armour formed the view the defendant had caused the injuries to herself, Mr Sandiford said.
He said Williams had a fixation on business owner Mohammed Ramzan, who she claims groomed her from the age of 12.
Letters allegedly written by Mr Ramzan, but which a handwriting expert said were likely to have been written by Williams, were found in a box at the foot of her bed, the court has heard.
Mr Sandiford told the jury: “What the prosecution say is these documents, the Rammi letters, you may think descend into an element of fantasy about the relationship between the defendant and Mohammed Ramzan and the existence of a son called Bailey who does not and has never existed.”
Williams has alleged that while on a trip to Amsterdam with her sister Lucy and her then boyfriend Liam Swift she was taken by Mr Ramzan to work at a brothel and sold at auction.
Mr Sandiford said: “If you think the defendant really was, or may have been, involved in what sounds like a scene from the movie Taken with Liam Neeson, rather than Liam Swift, you will not wish to convict her on the basis of Amsterdam.”
He questioned how the defendant had the time to be involved in trafficking while working 82 hours a week in three jobs, at a care home, a pub and a nightclub.
The prosecutor said: “If she was doing those three jobs, how did she fit in all these other significant life events she has told you about?
“Is the reality that her life in Barrow was somewhat more mundane and less interesting than she portrayed it to be?”
Williams, of Teasdale Road, Barrow, Cumbria, denies eight counts of perverting the course of justice.
The trial was adjourned until Thursday.
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