Eleanor Williams appeals against her false rape conviction

Eleanor Williams is awaiting sentence for eight counts of perverting the course of justice.

A woman who falsely claimed she was raped and trafficked by an Asian grooming gang has launched an appeal against her conviction.

Eleanor Williams, 22, of Barrow-in-Furness, was found guilty of perverting the course of justice in January.

She posted photos on social media of injuries she said were from beatings but had inflicted them on herself.

Williams is yet to be sentenced and the Ministry of Justice said the appeal process is in "the early stages".

• How a woman's gang rape lies sparked outrage

Her Facebook post in May 2020 was shared more than 100,000 times and sparked demonstrations in her home town in Cumbria.

The 10-week trial at Preston Crown Court was told the post was the "finale" to her story and she had accused a number of men of rape, going back to 2017.

She had told police she was consistently groomed and trafficked by Asian men.

On May 19 2020 she was found by officers near her home on Walney Island with injuries which she claimed were inflicted by a gang after she was taken to a house in the town and raped.

But the prosecution claimed Williams caused the injuries to herself with a hammer, which was found with her blood on close by.

The photos of her injuries went viral on social media

The trial heard Williams went online to "effectively find random names" to present as either victims or perpetrators of trafficking.

Some of the people she made allegations about were real while others did not exist, the jury heard.

She had sent some messages to herself, and in other cases manipulated real people to send messages she then claimed were from abusers.

A Snapchat account Williams claimed belonged to an Asian trafficker was found to belong of a young white man from Essex who believed she was his friend.

Another Snapchat account of an alleged abuser was created at her mother's address, police found.

The court heard she fabricated text messages from her so-called abusers

Williams had falsely claimed a local business owner had groomed her from the age of 12 and made her work in brothels in Amsterdam and sold her at an auction there.

However the court heard that at the time of her allegations, his bank card was being used in at B&Q in Barrow.

During her evidence, Williams denied telling a "pack of lies".

Asked about her 2020 Facebook post, she said: "I wanted people to know what was going on in Barrow, still is going on."

The jury took three and a half hours to find Williams guilty of eight counts of doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice.