A charity that helps victims of sexual exploitation has refused £10,000 originally raised to help Eleanor Williams, convicted this week of lying about being trafficked by an Asian grooming gang and making false rape claims.
Maggie Oliver said it would be “unethical” for her charity to accept any of the money. Oliver is a former Greater Manchester police (GMP) detective who rose to prominence as a whistleblower on sexual exploitation in Rochdale.
The Maggie Oliver Foundation was one of two charities that were to split £20,000 crowdfunded for Williams if she did not use it to bring her alleged abusers to justice.
Williams’s case came to public attention in May 2020 when a Facebook post she made recounting the allegations went viral, along with graphic photographs of injuries she said she had suffered in the attacks. The post, from May 2020, was liked by more than 100,000 people and shared by a number of public figures, including Oliver. She said she never spoke directly to Williams but introduced her to lawyers at the Centre for Women’s Justice.
“Ultimately she decided she wanted to stick with her original legal representation. Since then, I’ve had no contact with the family,” said Oliver. “We are not accepting any money from [the crowdfunder] because I just don’t think it would be ethical.”
She added: “I shared Ellie’s original Facebook post because I see cases like hers a lot. Not injuries like that, but victims who are being pushed away from the system and are desperate to be heard.”
More than 1,000 people donated £22,129 to “get justice for Ellie” via a JustGiving page. After JustGiving subtracted its fees, the final amount stood at £21,104.
Shane Yerrell, a Conservative councillor from Essex, said he started the crowdfunder in good faith because Williams’s story “filled me with sadness to think that a young girl could have been through such a terrible ordeal”.
When he discovered that Williams had been charged with perverting the course of justice and lying about various men – including a teenager from Barrow-in-Furness, Jordan Trengove, who spent 10 weeks in prison on remand – he decided to put caveats on the money raised.
Before handing over the final sum to Williams’s mother, Yerrell drew up a contract that said the Williams family could spend £1,204 “on counselling or holistic therapy treatment” for her. The remaining £20,000 could only be spent on legal advice to help Williams bring her alleged abusers to justice.
If no prosecution was brought by 23 July 2023, the money was supposed to be split between the Maggie Oliver Foundation and Women’s Community Matters, a charity that helps victims of sexual and domestic violence in Barrow.
There is some controversy over whether Women’s Community Matters should get the money, because Williams’s grandmother, Anne Burns, is one of the charity’s trustees. Burns is deputy leader of the Labour group on Cumbria county council and cabinet member for children’s services.
Trengove said he would like the money to go to victims of miscarriages of justice. “If it was my choice, I would like to give it to a charity for people who are falsely accused, or to give counselling for people who went through an ordeal like me. I didn’t get any help,” he said.
Allison Johnston, Williams’s mother, told the Guardian: “I still have all of the money. I understand that Shane is currently speaking to WCM and a decision is pending awaiting confirmation from the charity. When that has happened, a plan will be made with Shane to move forward with the donation.”
Yerrell said he was “deeply sad” about the verdicts. “Innocent men have had their lives turned upside down and their reputations destroyed,” he said.
Oliver was a key character in Three Girls, a BBC dramatisation of the Rochdale grooming case. During Williams’s 13-week trial, the prosecution said she concocted lies about an Asian grooming gang after watching Three Girls, as well as the Liam Neeson film Taken, which tells the story of a girl kidnapped by sex traffickers.
Williams’s case is extremely unusual, said Oliver: “I would still believe a victim if they came forward. It is then the job of the police to investigate. In this case, Ellie has been found guilty by a jury which heard all the evidence after a thorough police investigation. I wish every victim of abuse had their claims so thoroughly investigated.”
Women’s Community Matters did not respond to a request for comment.
A JustGiving spokesperson said: “We operate and enforce very strict fraud policies, which is why JustGiving is a trusted place for millions of people to raise and donate money for the causes they care about.
“This page closed in 2020 and we do not hold the funds in question. We are supporting the page owner and understand he is trying to recoup the funds and distribute them to an appropriate registered charity.”
