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[Music] The 20th of May, 2020. We start today's episode in the middle of the UK's lockdown. Barrow-in-Furness is a place that owes its existence to the sea. During this COVID crisis, Barrow has experienced COVID terribly, dreadfully.
The video explores the complex case of Elena Williams, whose viral abuse claims led to her arrest, revealing a deeply unsettling truth.
Key Takeaways
- Social media can rapidly amplify personal stories, influencing public opinion and police action.
- Cases involving abuse and grooming are complex and require careful investigation to discern truth.
- False accusations or misunderstandings can have severe consequences for all parties involved.
- Mental health issues may play a significant role in the behavior and claims of individuals involved.
- Public outrage and support can sometimes precede full legal clarity, complicating justice processes.
What the video covers
- The video begins during the UK's COVID-19 lockdown in Barrow-in-Furness, a town severely affected by the pandemic.
- Elena Williams, a 20-year-old, posted a viral Facebook message detailing years of abuse, rape, grooming, and trafficking.
- Despite public outrage and support for Elena, she was arrested for perverting the course of justice related to her claims.
- The video traces Elena's history with the police starting in 2017, including her allegations against multiple men.
- It covers specific incidents involving men named Cameron and Jordan Trango, both denying the accusations.
- The narrative reveals police investigations, bail conditions, and Elena’s troubled personal life including family conflicts.
- Public reaction included protests, social media campaigns, and fundraising efforts supporting Elena.
- The video highlights the complexities of the case, including mental health considerations and the difficulty in discerning truth.
- It discusses the impact on accused individuals and the broader community, including mental health struggles.
- The story culminates in a televised sentencing and reflections on justice, media influence, and victimhood.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction: Barrow-in-Furness during COVID-19 lockdown
- 02:00Elena Williams' viral Facebook post and public reaction
- 05:40Initial police involvement and allegations against Cameron
- 08:40Allegations against Jordan Trango and subsequent arrest
- 11:40Police investigations and community response
- 18:20Mental health considerations and complexities of the case
- 21:40Impact on accused individuals and public perception
- 25:00Conclusion: Sentencing and reflections on justice and media
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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The worst-hit town in the UK, according to the media, the highest number of cases in the country. The port town of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria was described as almost like a ghost town. The streets were empty and most
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people were inside and online. [Music] One of those people was 20-year-old Elena Williams, and she was on Facebook. After typing out a lengthy paragraph, she hit share on a post that would go viral almost as soon as it went live. I think
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this is the hardest post I'm ever going to write. It began, "Yesterday I was put into the back of a car and taken to an address to have sex with three Asian men. Afterwards, I was beaten to teach me a
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lesson." She continued. She went on to speak about years of abuse, rape, grooming, and torture, as well as being trafficked to different countries. She shared pictures of her injuries, injuries that looked so painful they made you wince when you saw them. She was covered
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in bruises, her eyes were swollen shut, and she had "rat" carved into her stomach. She listed how over the years her many abusers had broken her ribs and the bones in her face, tried to cut off her breasts, put cigarettes out on her,
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and dislocated her arm. She said they had given her drugs to the point that she was near addicted to heroin and many times just dumped her naked and left her to die. People's mouths fell open as soon as they read it and poured over all the
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awful pictures. One of her friends said it was something that would have been the plot to a film. Within an hour of the post going live, the police had someone in custody, but it was not one of Elena's
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abusers. It was Elena Williams herself. "Hi, er, um, um, if you just listen to my colleague, she's just going to have to read some alphabet of paper." "Alright, right, so you're under arrest for being in breach of your court bail in
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relation to charges of perverting the course of justice. So you don't have to say anything, but my army defense, if you did not mention one question, something which you aine and car, anything you do say it may be given as evidence." The
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outrage spread further afield than the small community in which she lived. No one could believe that someone could come forward so bravely to share their story and be met with an arrest. It was unfathomable. Outrage at the police soon
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followed, as well as the men that Elena had accused. Hashtags trended for her. Videos in support of her went equally viral, and posters went up across [Music] Barrow. Huge protests were taking place. More than 100,000 people joined the
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Justice for Elena Facebook page, and one online fundraising campaign raised more than 20,000. But as people marched through the streets, smashed windows, donated money, and shared everything and anything they could on social media, no one could ever have predicted what would happen next as
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the full and deeply unsettling truth was about to come out. Elena Williams first came onto the police's radar in November 2017. Sixteen years old at the time, she lived a quiet life by all accounts, living with her mom, stepdad, and siblings. Her parents
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had split when she was younger, and she didn't see too much of her dad. Her family were quite well known around town as her mom Allison was a labor counselor and described as a pillar of the community. People said Elena could go
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through periods of being quite quiet, maybe even a little subdued. Friends said she would occasionally skip school, much preferring to be out socializing in at house parties, but they said it was nothing out of the ordinary for a lot of
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teenagers. Just after 1:00 p.m. on November 22nd, 2017, Elena sat down for a taped interview in the police office. "Can you tell me your full name?" "My name is Elena Williams." She had already gone to the hospital with her mother after concerns
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that she had been sexually assaulted at a party but was struggling to piece everything together. Elena told them that after finishing a shift early, she uploaded a picture to Snapchat. After her friends saw, they encouraged her to come
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to a local house party, but she said no, she wasn't feeling it. "I wasn't going to go out, but I got, I put on Snapchat that I'd finished work." "Er, message up one in the minutes. They said it would just be a small group, some
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drinks, and a good laugh." So she finally gave in and turned up. It was at her friend Cameron's house. She went on to say that she and Cameron took a shot of vodka in his bedroom, and then he had
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tried to kiss her. She didn't want to engage and made an excuse to go to the toilet, but he got angry and dragged her back by her hair, throwing her onto the floor. "Cameron sat on top of me.
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He pulled my dress down 'cause it was like off-the-shoulder dress and took my bra down, laughing at me. Thought I was going to die." She said she couldn't remember anything after that. She woke up in her own house and
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then started receiving messages on Snapchat from Cameron. One said, "Drugged you, fued you, mugged you, left you, laughed at you, I've got HIV." Terrified, she then went straight to hospital. Twenty-two-year-old Cameron was horrified and denied that anything had
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happened. He was so confused when he saw the Snapchat screenshots. He said it simply wasn't true. It couldn't be true. That was not him. He said yes, Elena was at his party, but she was so drunk at one
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point he contacted her sister to try and help and to make sure she got home. "Okay, he was concerned about her." He was let go, and Elena eventually said she was dropping everything against him. However, he remained on bail and the police's radar
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for a further six months after this. Two years later, the now 19-year-old Elena was living in her own flat after frequent fights with her mom and stepdad. She said she was sick of it and needed her own space. It was at this time that
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she would contact the police again. "Emergency, please. What's the emergency?" "Was that... What's your name?" "Ellie." "What's been happening that you want him out?" "He just snacks me." "Do you need an ambulance?" "Ellie, as you come back in, just
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answer yes or no." "Ellie, if you're not able to speak, can you just press the number five twice?" "Okay, Ellie, we're coming to you with an emergency." "Okay, just try to stay safe as you can." Trang, so his full name is Jordan Trov.
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Yeah. On May 9th, 2019, with bruising across her face, Elena detailed how a man named Jordan Treno attacked her with a knife, beat her, and raped her three times. She showed messages from Jordan, some which read, "You were wanting it. I should
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have filmed it, could relive the experience. I'll rape you again and leave you for dead." Jordan was interviewed but denied it all. They had been on a night out together back in March, but he said Elena disappeared halfway through the night
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and he didn't even see her leave. He was far busier trying to talk to another girl. He said they knew of each other but not very well, and he emphatically stated that those messages had not been sent by
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him. He was beyond confused. On that particular night out, he and the girl he was talking to, Ebony, were actually dropped home by police officers after they spotted Jordan arguing at a taxi rank. He and Ebony stayed at his that night. It
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seemed a pretty solid alibi, and he was let out on bail. But a few days later, Elena would call the police again. She said Jordan had forced his way into her flat and attacked her, beating her with a
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showerhead. Police thought for someone still on bail and under investigation, this was brazen on another level. They couldn't take another chance on letting him go, and Jordan Trango was arrested and charged with three counts of rape. He pleaded not guilty to
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everything and was placed in Preston prison sex offender wing while awaiting trial. Word was starting to spread, and everyone was staggered to hear Jordan's name tied up in something so bad. It just didn't make sense. A month later, Elena was reported
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missing. This was not the first time, far from it. Her family and friends had made
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had run away and there was a concern that she might attempt to hurt herself she had more cuts and bruising to her body and police suspected she was using alcohol or drugs or both a month later Elena was back at the
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station to make another report so what we going to talk about today I was young stupid got House part and P is old man introduced to promise she told them she had met an older man she called Ramy at a house
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party years ago a house party she admitted she should never have been at Ramy was Muhammad ramzan a married father of four and a local well-known and well respected businessman and Elena said she had known him since she was 12
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and he had started grooming her almost immediately made me think that was his girlfriend for a long time she said at one particular party he had asked her to go and have sex with one of his friends calling it a massive favor Ellena said
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she did and then he said it wasn't happen again it was just off but then it wasn't off it started getting more and of and then it turns out Ramy was getting money when I I was detectives listened in horror
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wondering what on Earth was going on in their quiet Seaside Town what were they scratching the surface ofes under their control to do what said to do what we told [Music] to Elena told them things had escalated and she was now being taken to various
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homes to meet multiple men at the same time some houses were even in Rochdale and Alm hours away from Barrow she claimed Muhammad was the organizer of what was seeming to be a huge group of men and organized crime she said
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Muhammad had tried to sell her for €25,000 in Amsterdam and she also wrote down a list of names or descriptions of more than 50 girls that she said were victims as well the women who blew the whistle on
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police failures to investigate a grooming gang today Vindicated former Sexual Health worker Sara roboam visibly emotional angry that she'd not been believed operation span was deemed a success when it led to the prosecution of nine men in 2012 investigators said
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they couldn't help but think of past things like the Rochdale grooming gang which came to a head in 2012 they saw nine men convicted of sex trafficking and rape amongst other charges and as of January 2024 a total of 42 men have been
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convicted resulting in jail sentences totaling 432 years and 47 girls have so far been identified as victims almost a decade a dark cloud hung over this town of rotheram abuse survivors the most powerful part of a report which found
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South Yorkshire police missed opportunities to protect them and didn't recognize them as victims now finally 7 years later and after 11 months of court cases this gang of 20 men are imprisoned for what they did 3 years for
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trafficking and actual bodily harm 11 years for rape many of the details of what these men did to their victims are so disturbing we simply can't report them they also thought of what is known as the rotheram child exploitation
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Scandal which saw organized child sexual abuse happening in rotheram in northern England between the 1980s right through until 2013 with over 1,400 victims both of these appalling instances highlighted years of failures of the authorities to act on reports
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that had been made to them as the police listened the parallels seemed uncanny and it was hard to not let their mind go to the past they wondered if they were uncovering something similar here they arranged for new accommodation for
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Ellena outside of Barrow worried that if these men found out what she had told them it could be life-threatening for her Muhammad Raman was quickly arrested and interviewed it took him a minute to even realize who Elena was he said he
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barely knew her let alone had spent any time with her as detectives reeled off the list of crimes places and times he sat a gast he couldn't believe what he was hearing and denied everything I feel disgusted that my name is being T
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tarnished with something like that I'm an innocent man being persecuted after almost 48 hours in custody and hours of interviews the police concluded they did not have enough to hold him and Muhammad was released on bail but her allegations
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were so serious that the local station wanted outside resources to help and set up a major investigations team the senior investigator said if history was anything to go off they could not under any circumstances take a [Music] chance okay everything's reced again
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over the following months Elena would become a regular face at the station she was working closely with the team and would share everything with [Music] them she revealed to the team that she had been forced to go to Blackpool on
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June 30th after being being told she was very valuable and this was a place they could make more money from her police said she gave a huge amount of detail and specifics about everything descriptions of the shops the sound she
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heard the street lights what calendars people had on their walls what color their hallway wallpaper was they were elated she could remember so much knowing this was building a really strong case for them they asked if they could drive to Blackpool themselves and
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go around in an unmarked car while she pointed out the locations to to them she said that she would but as soon as they reached Blackpool this was where all her detail stopped somewhere along here do you remember where you were outside when it
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stopped no it was now just a long list of I don't know and I'm not sure was it on that route that you took us on or was it somewhere else not sure see what you call day yeah if if
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any point was turn it back on if some jumps out all right they spent 2 days driving around but Ellena couldn't give them anything other officers were going to various hotels and bnbs in the area sharing ellena's details and asking if anyone
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under her name had been booked in on June 30th finally at the seavoy hotel a staff member at reception confirmed that yes and Ellie Williams had indeed booked a room with them she had reserved it 2 days beforehand via booking.com and CCTV
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showed her checking in alone at about 8:30 p.m. an hour later she left the hotel and more cameras picked her up in a couple of local shops she paid for a pot Noodle and some milk before heading straight back to her
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room during this time frame she had already told the police that she was being driven around in a assed in various locations by various men reception could show them her key card information and after she got back to
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her room that night her door had not been opened for almost 24 hours she didn't leave once and no one entered her room she was actually logged into bbci player and watching videos on her phone she then returned home by
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bus back in the small community of Barrow with Jordan now in jail and Muhammad under investigation for the most serious of offenses this was really all people could talk about police have been going door too talking to the girls
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Ellena had named as also being victims of this alleged grooming gang but none of them had a clue what was going on or what she was talking about one girl said she was baffled when the police knocked on her door she had only been on one
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night out with Elena and it certainly had not ended with anything like that they had gone to the same school together but were in different years and she said she always remembered thinking there was something very strange about
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her behavior but this was just bizarre it was this combined with the CCTV from the hotel that gave police an awful realization Elena Williams was lying in July 2019 police had enough to place Ellena under arrest for perverting
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the course of Justice but as they went to present her with what they had found she went missing again her brother's girlfriend finally made a call to 999 saying she'd been driving around searching late one night when she found
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her stumbling alone on a bridge Elena got into her car and she dropped her home making sure she got in safely 20 minutes later the police turned up still ready to arrest her it was now 10: to 1
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in the morning when Elena opened the door she was bleeding from her mouth her eyes were swollen and her shoulders were covered in red marks you all right sit down sit down for me sit down this was not at all what they were
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expecting to find given what her brother's girlfriend had just said but they took her straight to hospital I'll help you I'll help you she'll get you an ambulance in a word she named another person someone called Oliver she told a story of being forced
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to go and meet him in Preston where he had made her take drugs and raped her she said he was part of a sex trafficking ring in ibea and said she had his number for them to track him
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down you can remember [Music] yeah she was clearly intoxicated and admitted to drinking alcohol and smoking spice spice is a synthetic drug which originally came onto the recreational drugs Market to mimic the effects of cannabis but spice is dangerous due to
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its potency and the way it exerts effects on the brain and body it is often referred to as the zombie drug and can cause seizures extreme anxiety and even psychosis they found her on CCTV getting off the train at Preston just as she had
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[Music] said when they found the man she had accused they were also able to locate him on the cameras OE was a traine electrician and had been celebrating a birthday in town when he bumped into Ellena randomly he had in fact stopped
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her to get a lighter from [Music] her they chatted for about 20 minutes and walked into an Alleyway where he admitted to kissing her and embarrassingly recalled a brief and perhaps clumsy sexual encounter just over a minute later Elena could be seen
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walking back out of the alley lighting a cigarette and walking [Music] off she then went into some public toilets and stood in front of the mirror rubbing her eyes for ages [Music] she got onto her train and headed back
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to Barrow this was just an hour or so before the police turned up at her door she had no injuries to her face at that time that they could see and although CCTV can only ever show a small amount
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something about what she was saying happened just did not seem to be reflected in the footage before them Ollie even said sent her a message asking her to add him on Snapchat hoping to see her again he told police he
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thought she was gorgeous and he was happy that he had met her she told him she was from Wigan and was going to work in one of the nightclubs in Preston neither of which were true he said I was
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just calling her to see because I was happy I met her and I was ringing her to arrange to meet her that's why I called her because I wanted to see her the police said from their examination it
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seemed to be a totally random encounter and he appeared to genuinely quite like her when she got off the train at Barrow the story she told the police was that she was then met by two older Asian men who
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walked her back to her flat where she was brutally raped and attacked again but the cameras showed her walking alone for a good while before her brother's girlfriend just as she had said saw her on the bridge his girlfriend confirmed
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that there was no one with her at the time she picked her up and she had no injuries to her face or body she dropped her home and then called the police right away to let them know she was back
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and just 20 minutes later her her face was now bleeding and she was covered in marks as well as what her brother's girlfriend had told them her neighbors hadn't seen or heard anything either and detective said there was no other
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conclusion they could draw other than she had done this to herself but this was such a hard thing to even imagine someone doing to themselves everything was moving so quickly and more names were being thrown out she accused another man named Lee of
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rape and told people she had a baby boy called Bailey and even said she spent several weeks in hospital in a coma after being given a Backstreet abortion using knitting needles she had never given birth nor been in a coma in
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hospital and all of this could be confirmed by her medical records Elena Williams was finally arrested and charged with perverting the course of justice and police presented her with CCTV from the seavoy hotel now these are pictures that are
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taken from the CCTV at boy hotel as you can't I explain what we've ended up with is information that contradicts your version of L do you understand how serious this is I do I feel bad laying she changed her story
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and said the men in the gang had found out she was informing them and knowing her life was in danger she had to hide out in hotels I am really really sorry for it but I haven't felt safe enough
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with basically know that I've been speaking to the police and they've told me to tell you certain things would put you off the cent of Truth and them difficulty is though least that you told us lies I know if you tell us lies it's
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hard to believe the truth because have been said I get it I do get it but I don't get these bruises for no reason you know my concern is now how did you get those bruises how you tell
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me self-inflicted you have an alarm but when officers pointed out they could just check her flight records to corroborate her story about being trafficked in IA she admitted that wasn't true when she claimed Muhammad had trafficked her to Amsterdam to sell
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her at an auction she had in fact been in Amsterdam but with her sister and her sister's boyfriend sharing a room with them as well bank records could put Muhammad in a b andq in England on the very day she was talking
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about with her partial admissions now starting to come out the court agreed to release Jordan trango who was still awaiting trial for the three counts of rape he was refuting he was released after being in the sex offender wing for
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10 weeks he later said prison was disgusting to be there when you know you haven't done anything wrong is 100 times worse I was in there with serious criminals I was put in the sexual offenses population as you can imagine
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it's not a nice place to be within a few months he had to move away from Barrow I thought it would end the first day we moved in and I had someone shout rapist at me it was clear
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then that no matter where I went someone would always know I was barred from everywhere Elena was let out on bail and went back to her mom's she was given a strict curfew and almost a year would pass while the police continued to
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compile their case [Music] We Now find ourselves back where we started today's episode in May 2020 on the 19th of May Elena's family reported her missing again she had now been reported missing more than 30 times in just one year officers finally found
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her late one evening standing in a field dressed in all black with her Hood up carrying a rock sack she was talking very fast and was agitated as they got closer they could see she was covered in blood with black eyes and
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the tip of one of her fingers was almost cut off as she sat in the back of the police car she said she had been dragged into a car and taken to a house where she was beaten and raped by 10 Asian men
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these were the most extreme injuries they had seen so far and she was taken to hospital as soon as the sun rose police were back in the field they found her in looking for any more clues they quickly found a hammer covered in blood
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which they took him for testing her injuries were so brutal they were hard to look at and some pictures we have not even included but these would be the pictures she would upload to Facebook a day later pictures which would go viral
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and start to unravel the chain of events we find ourselves in detectives said they were watching someone take things to such a point she could have ended up taking her own life she was clearly extremely troubled she was drinking a lot taking drugs like
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spice and cocaine running away and allegedly making attempts to end her own life as she had broken her bail conditions they were able to rearrest her so you're under arrest of being in breach of your CT bail in relation to
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charges of perverting the course of Justice little did they realize that while she sat in custody her Facebook post was spreading like [Music] wildfire detective seized a further eight hammers from her flat and multiple phones experts spend time trolling
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through the vast amounts of accounts and messages she would largely use Snapchat to talk to people and with the cooperation of the social media giant they got access to her Snapchat data Professor Lee Grant an expert in forensic Linguistics examined the
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messages between her and her alleged attackers and he said he found a significant similarity between the words and phrases in all the disputed messages he concluded that she had written them all herself between October and December 2019 she was chatting to someone she
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knew from school called Harry Cooper they had been flirting over messages and when the messages became more sexual she changed his contact information to ex Haram someone she told the police was a trafficker attempting to groom her she
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later changed his info again to ex Ramy so when Harry called her she could show it to the police and say it was Muhammad making the calls she wrote herself letters pretending to be Muhammad as well acting as if he were writing to her to
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apologize for the things he had done Snapchat data could also confirmed that Jordan Tango's alleged Snapchat account treni 7 was created by Ellena another phone which was registered to Elena's address was used to create an account under the name Rolo Kelsey someone she
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completely made up and also claimed was a trafficker another account under the name solza was also created by her in early July of 2019 she used another mobile phone which had been given to her by a barrow charity which
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supports female victims of violence and sexual abuse called women's Community matters she used this phone to send messages purporting to be another victim caught up in the trafficking ring someone called Nicole every single allegation she had made police could pick apart either
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using phone data or CCTV testing on the hammer also came back and there was only one person's DNA on there Elena Williams a pathologist concluded that her injuries were consistent with self-inflicted blows using her right hand they were also able to find CCTV
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footage which showed her purchasing the hammer that was found in the field and which also confirmed she had been on her own the whole time a 10-week trial would begin in October 2022 and it was complex to say
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the least Dr Lucy bacon a forensic psychi who assessed Elena many times diagnosed complex post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from childhood trauma she said she displayed all of the key symptoms including suicidal ideation and substance misuse she said she suspected
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undisclosed sexual abuse in childhood and Social Services being involved in the home until she was eight although the ins and outs of this are not known Dr Martin Loch was on behalf of the prosecution and he said he was not able
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to diagnose Elena with any psychiatric disorder but Dr Lucy bacon suggested this may have been because he was male and that Ellena had refused to engage with some male healthc Care Professionals in prison a big part of the prosecution's evidence was the
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hammer and the self-inflicted wounds but in court Elena denied hitting herself with anything saying I'm not a psychopath the jury took just three and a half hours to find her guilty of eight counts of perverting the course of
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justice and unusually for the UK her sentencing was televised this will inevitably be a lengthy prison sentence and I have a great deal of information about this defendant's situation from her evidence in the case and the many psychiatric reports by way of very broad
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summary this defendant made serious allegations of a sexual nature against a large number of men between the October of 2017 and March 2020 she went on a night out on the 8th of March 2019 into the 9th of March 2019 with Mr trov and
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others I'm perfectly s satisfied that there was no basis for her believing that she had been sexually assaulted that night in order to support that allegation she created a number of false messages purporting to be from Mr Treno
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one of the accounts she used to send these messages was created from her family home using the IP address of the Wi-Fi network there Mr Treno was not even there she knew it was false she did indeed have injuries but she calls him
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to herself to support her allegation and as we will see this was to become a feature of her conduct on the 18th of June 2019 the defendant made allegation to detective inspector Nutter that she had been the victim of sex traffickers
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her account mainly centered around a local businessman Muhammad Raman she supplied a long list of men who were traffickers they were not all of this was complete fabrication she created an extensive cast of traffickers some were invented all together others existed but
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were not traffickers at all the defendant manipulated friends and work colleagues to involve them unwittingly in her deceptions she invented people in her phone the females she named as co-victims of trafficking were spoken to none of them had been trafficked a home
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office pathologist gave evidence to the effect that the serious injuries she had sustained were completely inconsistent with her account and completely consistent with being self-inflicted with the hammer which she had bought though she wasn't at at the time of the
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commission of the vast majority of this offending I must bear in mind her maturity as well as her chronological age there is evidence that she is immature apart from her age there is some other personal mitigation it is
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troubling to say the least that she shows no significant sign of remorse even continuing to profess the truth of her allegations I agree with the conclusion of Dr lock that there is no evidence upon which I could conclude
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that there is a complex post-traumatic stress disorder since she has been found guilty the defendant has hinted at other sources of trauma but has given no real indication as to what it could be of course I've considered whether the ab
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barent nature of these offenses means that I should assume that the defendant is suffering from some mental impairment there is no explanation for why the defendant would commit these offenses but I cannot conclude that she chose to make her Facebook post of the 20th of
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May 2020 for any other reason than that she intended to to create an impact within the town I accept that there was no direct incitement to do anything but it was entirely foreseeable that there will be considerable Community impact
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upon those of Asian or Pakistani Heritage she cannot be held wholly or directly responsible for the criminal behavior of others who used her allegations as an excuse for their own inexcusable conduct the harm of this offending extends to an undermining of
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public confidence in the criminal justice system we are aware that sex trafficking of young females does occur there is a risk that genuine victims will as a result of this defendant's actions feel deterred from reporting it in this case I make reduction for the
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defendant's age then for personal mitigation in relation to count nine only I reduce the sentence for credit for a guilty plea I then further adjust the sentences for totality these are the sentences that you will serve on count
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one there will be a sentence of 6 months in imprisonment on counts 3 to 5 the sentence will be 3 years imprisonment concurrent on each count but consecutive to the sentence on count one giving a total so far of three and a half years
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there will be sentences of Five Years on counts five six and seven concurrent with one another but consecutive to the sentences already imposed finally there will be a sentence of one year and 3 months imprisonment on count 8 and 6
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months imprisonment on count n those sentences to run concurrently with each other and the other sentences imposed that gives a total sentence of 8 and 1 half years imprisonment you will serve half of the total sentence of imprisonment in custody after which you
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will be released on license a young woman whose lies tore a community apart and drove three men to attempt suicide is starting a long jail sentence tonight 22-year-old Ellena Williams was eventually jailed for 8 and 1/2 years and is first eligible for
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parole in 2027 a petition to extend her sentence was rejected as was ellena's appeal against her own sentence through an apology letter to the judge Elena partially admitted her lies saying she had done wrong on some of this and added
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that she wasn't thinking straight when she made the Facebook post I feel no sense of Triumph only sadness for the loss of the years the impact on my family here we are and a true impact that that this will have on
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true victims that's the loss of you Mr Raman says he's now supporting Jordan trango who spent 10 weeks in jail after Ellie accused him of rape both say they tried to take their own lives because of the stress if you were able to say
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anything to Ellie Williams today what would you say why I want to know why you have done this to us why because she's not only done it to me and M she's done it to our families and there's innocent
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children and kids involved in in our families along with that and she's destroyed their lives along along with our Allison ellena's mom said the order says Ellie was a victim of exploitation and trafficking from the age of 12
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personally I don't believe that because I think as her mother I would have known something was happening to her at such a young age but to ur her family it says she was telling the truth that she was a
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victim in the way that she claimed to be and as her mother I believe her there was some things she claimed that I do believe were not true there were parts of it that she made up I also don't
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believe that Ellie inflicted those injuries on herself she couldn't have caused them there is so much people still don't know about Ellie and what she has been through they would think differently if they knew for Ellie Williams's mother it's a
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devastating verdict the court has decided she is a liar about really serious things yeah that's correct and in the eyes of the law I've got to follow that verdict and and accept that but she's a happy little thing and um so I missed that I
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miss that energy in the house and they being here but um she's uh she'll be back again at some point so we just got to look forward to that time the more than £20,000 that was raised via online funding was intended
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to be used to pay for a private prosecution of her alleged attackers after outraging questions about where the money had gone Allison said that £13,000 had been donated to two homeless Charities but Shane yl who organized the appeal said he had launched legal action
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to recover the money with just over £7,000 having been returned to him by his bank following an anti-fraud claim he transferred 3,600 to the Barrow based furnace Multicultural Community forum and gave the same amount to the James bul Memorial
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trust Allison was also suspended by the labor party there were also calls for stricter rules to be put in place when it came to social media some of her posts were viewed over 100,000 times which made it very hard for the police to put a stop
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to things and also dissect the truth from the lies however we all know that the internet moves at a rapid speed and in the space of a few minutes something can be on the way to going viral once
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it's out there it's out there and it's very hard to put the Jack back in the box so to speak the Online safety act 2023 was created to regulate online speech in media and referenced ellena's case it gives the
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relevant Secretary of State the power to designate and suppress or record a wide range of speech and media that is deemed harmful kria police said they had to deal with more than 150 crimes in the aftermath of ellena's Facebook post 83
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of which were classed as hate crimes Doug Marshall was the senior investigating officer on the casee and he described this as a disgusting State of Affairs there is still so much speculation about what possibly possessed her to do
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something like this everything from wanting to copy films or TV sh seen like taken or the BBC drama three girls which was actually based off real life events to the effects of drugs and alcohol to just thriving off of having the police
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hang on her every word one of the investigators said she just had a desire to be believed she desperately wanted to be believed it is easy to see why a post like that blew up in the way that it did
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seeing those photos coupled with that caption would undoubtedly upset and shock anyone who saw it people put themselves in her shoes looked at her as if she was their daughter their friend their sister and it struck such a nerve
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in the community and eventually the whole of the UK it is impossible for most people to even contemplate thinking of fabricating something like that let alone saying these lies out loud and watching them play out in such a
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frightening way the police spent years looking into these claims and trying to catch the people responsible for what they believed was organized crime on a huge scale they weren't just fighting for Elena they were fighting for the 60
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girls she claimed were being affected by it too this took up an unbelievable amount of man hours and thus took time away from other people that needed real help and real life-altering situations that needed to be looked into and the
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men that found themselves accused of some of the most appalling things you could ever be accused of what they went through is unimaginable and will stay with them forever I had rapist spray painted on my house my windows smashed
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you know so I knew I wasn't going to be coming out to a nice environment I wasn't going to be welcomed I didn't want to leave my house it came to the point where I didn't leave my house it
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was just it was just so bad her support started to withdraw from her in around January and that's when a lot more people started to believe those guys um which was a relief in a way but it did
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take a while it took 3 to four years to actually get people to understand that we were innocent people threats we had we had messages like people are going to rape my wife in front of me from Islam
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from islamophobia to racism to just general hate people wishing me dead Mr Ramson says his children were also threatened did you did you say that they had fire extinguishers baseball bats in next to the beds for the safety cuz we
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had threats people to burn burn the shops down burn us down and do you think that they they they the the majority of the Town thought that you were a sex offender I I think yes I would say yes
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they did Muhammad lived in fear walking around streets where everyone's heads would turn and stare he said 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
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did the reputation I'd made was ruined Jordan was much the same and said I tried killing myself over it I got diagnosed with complex PTSD because of it all he became a father in August 2021 but says he struggled to bond with his
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son as her trial kept getting postponed olle stopped working and studying after the accusations and spent a lot of time seeking treatment for mental health issues and Cameron said the abuse he got online was so bad he was scared to pick
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his son up from Nursery because of what might happen to him even men that had not been named by Ellena found themselves watching over their shoulder as they walked down the street and still feel the aftermath today sagid lived in Barrow most of his
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life and he said the impact on the Asian Community there was unlike anything he could have ever imagined after the Facebook post went viral sag's trade dropped by 95% almost overnight another local man named Adel also ran a takeout and lost
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tens of thousands of pounds in Revenue he had to take out a loan and borrow money from family and friends just to get by he said people just looked at him differently even customers that came back looked at him
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differently the impact of this on people that had suffered abuse was also massive one of ellena's friends who had suffered years of abuse herself said Reading ellena's Post gave her the courage to tell her own story and the Betrayal she
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felt when the truth came out broke her heart she said it was like a domino effect everyone was coming forward to tell their story to make her feel like she wasn't alone the last thing we wanted to do was not believe her because
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we know what it's like to not be believed Maggie Oliver used to be a detective and played a pivotal role in the Rochdale grooming gang case she was so appalled at how the Rochdale case had been handled that she eventually
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resigned from greater Manchester police and became a whistleblower to expose the poor handling of the case by her own team she now runs a foundation for abuse survivors and said that this case had left her feeling saddened when Elena
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first made her allegations Maggie had supported her family and referred them to the Center for Women's Justice she said what about all the victims and survivors throughout the country who are now feeling uncomfortable and wondering are they going to be believed or will
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they come forward one detective who worked Elena's case reiterated this and said the thought of what happened in this isolated incident putting real victims off coming forward was very upsetting and he hoped this would not be the case Adel said we were branded guilty
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before any real evidence had come out we were tried and found guilty by social media and one question that will always remain in this case is why [Music] [Music]
Topics:Elena WilliamsBarrow-in-Furnessabuse allegationsgroomingtraffickingsocial mediaperverting course of justicepolice investigationCOVID-19 lockdownTrue crime
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