A man who was locked up for weeks after a woman lied that he raped her has spoken of his traumatic ordeal.
Jordan Trengrove was horrified when he was arrested after Ellie Williams - who he had only met on a night out once - claimed to police he had raped her at a flat. Despite protesting his innocence, Jordan, who was only 18 at the time, was remanded into custody and sent to prison to await trial.
Eventually, Jordan was released from jail and his charges dropped after Williams' lies were finally exposed. Now, after the 22-year-old woman has been convicted of perverting the course of justice - which included fabricating a story about a grooming gang drugging and raping young girls - Jordan has been able to speak about his horrifying time in jail and life after.
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Jordan, of Barrow, Cumbria, said he only met Williams on a night out with friends in Manhattan's nightclub. They spent two hours with her, and then went their separate ways.
"I knew of her, because she worked there, but that was it", Jordan tells LancsLive. When the lads moved on to another bar, he says Williams tagged along. "We said she could come with us, because we are nice people. But later she disappeared and someone said she was being sick on the stairs, so we carried on with our night out."
At the end of the evening, Jordan took a taxi back to a friend's house, with another girl. Later he was taken home by Cumbria Police. A few days later, he was arrested on suspicion of rape, after Williams claimed he had attacked her at her flat in Steamer Street.
"I had a solid alibi", he said. "I had been with the police. I was disgusted and I was confused. I didn't know what was going on."
Jordan, who now lives in Ulverston, was held in a police station and questioned about Williams' accusations. He was released on bail, but that was not the end of it. A few days later he was arrested again, accused of attacking Williams. On May 19, 2019, the police arrested Jordan for a third time after Williams claimed he had spiked her and raped her.
The police weren't taking any chances. A week before his 19th birthday, Jordan was remanded in custody and sent to prison to await trial, where he was locked up with a self-confessed paedophile.
"It was horrible", he says. "You don't want to be in prison if you have done something but to be there when you've done nothing wrong is just awful. I didn't really leave my cell."
'When I returned home I had rapist sprayed on my house'
After 10 weeks in prison, Jordan's barrister made a successful bail application, and he was allowed to leave. But the teenager could not return home to Barrow. He was ordered to stay in Workington, more than 50 miles from home, and sign on at a police station every other day.
Then, a week and a half later, Jordan received a phone call which changed everything. The charges had been dropped and he was formally acquitted of any wrongdoing.
"It was a relief", he says, "but I still questioned why I'd been accused of all this. My case had been reported in the paper and mud stuck. When I returned to Barrow I had my windows smashed, and someone sprayed rapist on my house."
Jordan began trying to rebuild his life and at the end of 2019 he met his partner, but his experience of prison tainted every corner of his life. He did not feel comfortable in public and was in constant fear he would be attacked or subjected to abuse. "My mental health was shot", he says.
Then in May 2020, Williams posted a horrific account of being sold at sex parties by an "evil but clever" Asian grooming gang, she claimed was operating in Barrow. When she did not go along with their orders, she was beaten black and blue, she claimed. The 1,300 word Facebook post was accompanied with harrowing pictures of William's bruised face and body and a heart wrenching account of years of sexual exploitation. Within hours, it went viral, being shared more than 100,000 times.
What the post did not reveal was that a few weeks earlier, Williams had been charged with eight counts of perverting the course of justice, in connection with her false claims against Jordan, and a number of other men.
"It was shocking", says Jordan. "I knew it must be more lies. I knew the extent she had gone to to lie about me and I tried to warn people but she had them all fooled. The Justice For Ellie campaign was horrible. They were driving from Barrow to where I lived in Ulverston. There were people doing Facebook Lives. You couldn't get away from it.
"I would go on days out to Manchester and it was a relief to be where no-one recognised me but I still felt unsafe. I felt like everyone was talking about me and calling me a rapist. There was no escape. The police came to see me not long after she was remanded into custody. I felt a little bit of relief, but the campaign was still carrying on.
"It has affected me in so many ways. When my son was born in August 2021, I struggled to bond with him because I didn't want him growing up, hearing his dad being called a rapist. My relationship was affected and I pushed my partner away so many times. I have complex PTSD because of what happened to me and struggle to trust anyone.
"I had to go to court to give evidence, which was nervewracking. The last time I had been in court I was being accused of something I hadn't done, and before that I had never set foot in a courtroom. But everyone had listened to Ellie's story, and now it is time for them to hear mine. Some of the evidence that came out was really shocking. I went along to hear the closing speeches and the defence team were saying things about me. I had Ellie sitting behind me and her mum sitting in front. I couldn't breathe and I had to walk out of the court room. Then the jury went out and we waited, and waited, and waited."
After four hours the jury returned and delivered unanimous verdicts on eight counts of doing an act intending to pervert the course of public justice.
"I looked over at them, smiled and nodded at them to say thank you", Jordan says. "It must have been hard for them to sit and listen to all that. I hate Ellie Williams for what she has done. Barrow will forever be known as that place where she lied. It used to be known for its shipbuilding but that title has been tarnished. So many people have been affected by this.
"The community came together for her, and I think it is time they came together again now. For me, I just have to keep fighting forward and keep my head high. I want to get on top of my mental health and rebuild things with my Mrs and my little boy. I said to her, when all this is over we'll have a proper day out, and get some food. Just have a nice time. We've never been able to go on a proper date, with everything that's happened."
Williams will be sentenced at Preston Crown Court in March, three years after Jordan met her in Manhattan's nightclub. "I don't know what to expect from the sentence, but that will be it.
"One final court date and it is over. I can start to rebuild my life."
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