An Asian business owner who was falsely accused by grooming gang fantasist Eleanor Williams has revealed the horrific racial abuse he received – including threats of rape to his wife and children.
Williams, 24, ‘destroyed lives’ with her accusations of torture, rape and exploitation against an ‘Asian grooming gang’ in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria in May 2020 that turned out to be false.
She made up increasingly serious accusations of rape and sex trafficking to police over a three-year period and went viral after posting photographs of her bruised face.
Williams was eventually jailed for eight-and-a-half years after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice in 2023.
The devastating impact of her web of lies is being shown in new Channel 4 documentary Accused: The Fake Grooming Scandal, which tells the stories of her victims.
The programme hears from Faz, a restaurant owner in Barrow whose business was named by Williams in her accusations.
In emotional scenes, Faz detailed the horrific racist abuse he received, and the frightening threats made to his wife and children.
He said: ‘You had local people walking past spitting at the window and shouting racist abuse.
‘I started getting calls and answered the phone to “we’re going to come get ya”. They’re like I know where you live, I know where you are, I know you have two kids and I know who your wife is’
‘What they said to me was, “we’re going to rape your wife and f*** your kids”.’
Faz, who owns the Mithali restaurant in Barrow, said his windows were smashed and he began receiving racist messages on social media, including telling him he was a ‘f***ing maggot’ and that he ‘has five years left in this country until you are all burnt alive’.
Williams claimed she had been ‘stuck’ in his restaurant in a social media post – but after speaking to staff it turned out her story didn’t add up and she was there of her own ‘free will’ to have a cigarette.
Faz added: ‘I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
‘Barrow’s a small town, I’ve lived here all my life. Everyone kind of knows everyone.
‘I was the only Asian child in the whole school and there was never any talk of culture. My friends never made me feel any different.
‘But after Ellie’s Facebook post what affected me most was that people who actually knew me were saying stuff like they were kind of believing I might have been involved.’
The documentary also hears from business owners Mahin and Mohammed Ramzan, known as Mo Rammy, who said the accusations levelled against him were ‘life destroying’.
Mahin told how the front and back windows of his shop were broken in. He said: ‘All our windows are broken.
‘People are ignoring me. I didn’t do anything – why are people blaming me?
And Rammy, the owner of an ice cream business, said he was ‘knocked for six’ after receiving hundreds of angry messages.
He said: ‘I wasn’t scared, I was angry. This is me protecting myself and my honour, my family name and my children. This is life destroying.’
His son Harry, who was 15 at the time, was told he was a ‘pedophile’ while serving ice cream at the family business.
Rammy described his horror when he was arrested for human trafficking, modern day slavery and accused of the sexual exploitation of a child.
He said: ‘This is the worst accusation you can put on any man.’
Williams claimed Rammy had trafficked her since the age of 12 and threatened to kill her – allegations which he always denied. He also denied having any contact with Williams, said he received hundreds of death threats and abuse from people as far away as the US, and self-harmed and considered taking his own life.
Mr Ramzan said previously: ‘It absolutely ruined me to the point where I smashed a bottle on my head. I wanted to kill myself because of the damage it did. The reputation I’d made was ruined. My neighbours turned on me. People dropped me. I lived in hell.’
In July 2019, Mr Ramzan was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking and investigated for three weeks but no charges were brought.
When the allegations became public in May 2020, Mr Ramzan said he received hundreds of threatening or abusive messages via Facebook.
He said: ‘It was like the whole world was against me – literally the whole world.’
Mr Ramzan was among five named men accused of being involved in rape or human trafficking by Williams.
She was found guilty of eight counts of perverting the course of justice, including two directly relating to Mr Ramzan.
Williams alleged Mr Ramzan had been involved in trafficking her to Amsterdam to be sold for sex in 2018 but cops found he had been shopping at B&Q on the dates in question. Williams claimed he was involved in trafficking her to ‘parties’ in Blackpool where she was forced to have sex with multiple men.
Falsified allegations of rape are incredibly rare, but seriously undermine the credibility of legitimate victims, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.
Her lies were undone by more than 50 hours of footage, including street CCTV, tapes of video interviews and police bodycams.
These allegations were the latest in a series of claims which began in 2017 when she was just 16.
In a police interview in 2017 Williams accused her first victim of rape. But after he denied all knowledge of the alleged incident, she withdrew her involvement from the police investigation.
More than a year later, she again went to police and claimed to have been raped by a man, with images showing her with bruising to her cheek that she claims was caused by the attack.
The man she had accused spent ten weeks in prison before finally being released.
But just weeks later, she contacted police again and claimed she was a victim of an Asian grooming gang that was trafficking her across the north-west of England for sex.
Detective Constable John Robinson, who worked on the case, told the BBC he saw a clear ‘evolution’ in Williams’ allegations, adding: ”You’ve got an awful allegation in 2017, a much worse allegation in 2019 and weeks later it properly snowballs into a massive organised crime group.’
He said her story began to unwind when she was taken to Blackpool, a town she had claimed to recently have been trafficked to – but was unable to provide any leads.
Footage released from inside the vehicle shows Williams being driven around for large parts of the day, but unable to provide any location or other clue that would support the investigation into the alleged trafficking.
Officers believe she had researched real cases of sex trafficking by Asian grooming gangs in order to lend her account more authenticity.
She had given detailed accounts of properties she had supposedly been raped in, from the colour of the walls to descriptions of calendars on the walls.
But on taking her to Blackpool in an attempt to investigate her claims, Det Con Robinson said they spent the day ‘driving around fairly aimlessly in the hope that something might be familiar’.
He also became concerned at the lack of emotion Williams displayed: ‘I spent two days in a car with her. I don’t remember her getting upset once.’
Further investigations revealed CCTV footage and mobile phone records which contradicted her accounts.
Shortly afterwards police planned to arrest Williams over the false allegations, but she went missing before they could do so.
Almost a year later while on bail, she broke a curfew and was found in a dark field by police. She again claimed to have been raped by a gang of Asian men and had serious injuries to her face and body.
Police discovered the injuries from the night in May 2020 were again self-inflicted with a hammer, which was found in a field with her DNA on it.
CCTV showed her buying an identical hammer in a branch of Tesco a month earlier.
Williams later posted a photo of her injuries online and repeated her allegations, sparking public outrage.
She was arrested an hour later, but this did not stop a barrage of hate crimes in Barrow-on-Furness, with police recording 83 separate incidents linked to her post.
After her arrest, Williams’ family set up a fundraiser which raised more than £20,000 using the graphic post on social media. None of the money has ever been repaid.
For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details.
Accused: The Fake Grooming Scandal airs on Channel 4 this week.
