Channel 4 Accused The Fake Grooming Scandal: What happened to Ellie Williams and did she go to jail?

In May 2020, a teenage girl went viral on Facebook after posting harrowing images of her bruised and battered face and body. The girl, Ellie Williams, claimed she had been the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of 'an Asian grooming gang'.

In the post, which was shared more than 100,000 times, Ellie described being beaten, raped and trafficked multiple times by the men. As her post racked up more and more views, protests started to spread from her hometown of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria to elsewhere in the UK as the public demanded justice for Ellie.

What people didn't realise at the time was that her post was a lie. Ellie had made the allegations up, and in March 2023, she was sent to jail for perverting the course of justice.

On Tuesday night, Channel 4 will air the first of three episodes in a new documentary series exploring the case. The documentary, entitled Accused: The Fake Grooming Scandal, will feature interviews with some of the men Ellie accused as well as other key players.

In the Facebook post that sparked national outrage, Ellie claimed she had been the victim of a grooming gang, describing how she had allegedly been beaten, abused and trafficked by Asian men. The 1,300-word Facebook post detailed a fabricated account of years of sexual exploitation.

Alongside it, she shared pictures of severe injuries, including a swollen eye, cut finger and injuries to her legs and abdomen, which she claimed were inflicted by the gang. However, evidence heard in court found the injuries had been caused to herself with a hammer she had purchased from Tesco earlier in the month.

Ellie claimed the grooming gang inflicted punishment beatings on their victims, describing how one girl nearly died as a result of a