Mother of woman who was jailed for lying about being raped has still not returned over $25K in donations
LONDON, ENGLAND: A Labour councillor, whose daughter was jailed for blatantly lying about being raped by an Asian grooming gang, has reportedly failed to return more than £21,000 (~$25,500) in donations. At least 1,000 well-wishers contributed to an online appeal for Eleanor Williams after she blatantly lied that an Asian gang trafficked and abused her in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. She also accused several men of raping her.
Believing her claims, people donated money to cover her legal fees and help bring her abusers to justice. Last week, however, the 22-year-old was convicted of perverting the course of justice and given an eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence after being exposed as a fantasist. At least three men who she false accuse of rape attempted to commit suicide due to her lies.
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'There is no grooming gang'
Shane Yerrel, a Tory councilor in Essex who organized the appeal, revealed that he transferred £21,104 (~$25,700) to Williams’ mother Allison Johnston. However, despite her daughter's conviction in January, she has still not returned the amount. Yerrel vowed to launch legal proceedings to retrieve the money, which he said must go to charity. "There is no grooming gang, so the money can never be spent on what it was meant to be spent on," he said during an appearance on the DMC Daily podcast last week.
Johnston, who is a councilor on Barrow Borough Council, was reportedly suspended by the Labour Party following Williams’s conviction in January. According to Yerell, he contacted Johnston and urged her to release £3,000 (~$3,653) of the cash so it could be donated to a family who wished to take their terminally-ill three-year-old daughter to Lapland. However, Johnston apparently "ignored" the message and so he decided to appeal directly to her on the podcast. "As a mother, you should put yourself in that little girl’s mother’s situation... I think it’s disgusting to hold on to [the money]," he said.
The ‘Get Justice for Ellie’ fundraiser drew a total of £22,129 in donations in 2020. However, this was reduced to £21,104 after accounting for fees charged by the JustGiving fundraising website. The funds, under a deal drawn up by Yerrell, were to be split between two charities if Williams’ supposed abusers did not face prosecution. Following her conviction, both charities – the Maggie Oliver Foundation and Women’s Community Matters – declined the money. Yerell said he had two other charities lined up to donate the amount to. Johnston has not responded to the latest allegation but told The Guardian in January that she still had the money.
Self-inflicted injuries
Williams falsely claimed that an Asian gang had trafficked and abused her in May 2020. In a 1,300-word Facebook post, she shared disturbing photos of injuries she claimed were a result of brutal physical abuse. The post made waves on social media and sparked demonstrations and death threats against local Asian men. However, it later emerged that she had actually inflicted the injuries on herself with a claw hammer.
Williams had reportedly already made a series of false rape allegations dating back to 2017. Jordan Trengrove, one of the victims of her campaign, revealed that he spent 73 days in prison -- sharing a cell with a pedophile -- after being falsely accused of rape. Trengrove voiced his frustration last week after learning that some of the donations had not been given to the family of the terminally-ill child. "They were quick enough to accept £22,000. Why can’t they give £3,000 of it and give it to an actual cause?" he said.
Meanwhile, Tory MP Simon Fell, of Barrow and Furness, called for the funds to be spent on repairing the damage done by Williams' lies. "It would be really good to see these funds go to a good cause that could further community cohesion," he said, as quoted by the Daily Mail.