True crime series on teen’s viral lockdown hoax and where to watch it
Need to know
A new true crime documentary will revisit the case of Ellie Williams, a UK teenager whose post went viral during the COVID-19 lockdown
Ellie Williams’ case is being revisited in a three-part documentary(Image: PA)
Everything to know about new documentary exploring teen’s lockdown lie
- A shocking new documentary will revisit the extraordinary case of teenager Ellie Williams who falsely claimed she was trafficked by a grooming gang. The three-part series ‘The Lie That Exposed the Truth’ revisits her viral Facebook post during the 2020 lockdown that sparked a flurry of hate-related crimes against Barrow’s Asian community.
- She was jailed for eight-and-a-half years in January 2023 for perverting the course of justice after a jury found she had lied and inflicted injuries on herself to frame five men.
- The documentary will feature interviews with Ellie’s family and survivor testimony, seeking to explore whether there was any “truth beneath the lies.” It also examines whether the focus on proving Ellie had lied led to denial of a wider grooming problem in the town.
- Executive producer Henry Singer said: “We’d previously made a film on the Rochdale grooming scandal so when the Ellie Williams story broke, something didn’t sit right with us with how the press was telling it. The abuse of young girls has been ignored and dismissed for far too long.”
- The series will also uncover accounts from other women in Barrow whose allegations of abuse were dismissed or ignored. It explores how far-right groups have weaponised such cases to fuel outrage while agencies have avoided confronting perpetrators’ ethnicity.
- The documentary arrives on Sky and NOW later this year. A release date is yet to be announced.
READ THE FULL STORY: ‘Troubling’ true crime documentary explores teenager’s viral lockdown lie