In the Spring of 2020, Eleanor Williams, a young girl from Barrow-in-Furness, in Cumbria, published pictures on social media of her alleged injuries, claiming she had been the victim of an Asian grooming gang. The allegations sent shockwaves through her community, even leading to social unrest and incidents of hate crime.

However, Police investigations showed that the accusations were entirely false. Williams was arrested by the Police and charged with perverting the course of justice.

The BBC covered the case in its ‘The Big Cases’ series. Anna Bradshaw appeared in the episode ‘The Lie That Destroyed a Town‘, discussing the offence of perverting the course of justice. Anna explained what kind of sentence this offence can attract and why it is rare to see it charged.

Anna said: “The bottom line is that the offence is reserved for the most serious types of interference with the administration of justice.”

In January 2023, Williams was found guilty of perverting the course of justice and, two months later, she was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison.

The documentary is available to view on iPlayer for the next 11 months. Anna appears at 21:36.