Unreliable Witness | Storycast

By Sky News

Listen to a podcast, please open Podcast Republic app. Available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

Image by Sky News

Category: True Crime

Open in Apple Podcasts


Open RSS feed


Open Website


Rate for this podcast

Subscribers: 443
Reviews: 0
Episodes: 52

Description

At the height of lockdown, 19-year-old Ellie Williams claims on social media she’s been trafficked by an Asian grooming gang across the North of England. Photos of her horrific injuries add to the outrage and the post goes viral – shared more than 100 thousand times.

Social media rumours lead to attacks on Asian men and businesses in her hometown of Barrow-in-Furness. But when she’s arrested for perverting the course of justice, things really explode and there are protest rallies and claims of a cover-up. At the trial the prosecution claims she’d lied, faked text messages and even caused the catalogue of injuries to herself.  
 
In season 6 of StoryCast, Sky News’ Jason Farrell and Liz Lane, who reported on the case at the time, return to Barrow to investigate what could have led her to make these claims and if, underneath it all, there is some other secret buried amongst the lies.

With access to her family, police investigators and those most impacted by her allegations, we ask: Why did Ellie Williams create such an elaborate lie? And what happened AFTER the trial – once all the media attention died down and other allegations began to emerge? 

For more investigative stories from the award-winning Sky News StoryCast strand, listen to our past seasons.  
 
SEASON 5: Patient 11 (2024) 
Following the death of her brother, young mother Alexis Quinn seeks temporary respite in NHS psychiatric care, never imagining that three days, would turn into more than three year ordeal that would ultimately expose a national scandal. 
 
SEASON 4: StoryCast 21 (2021) 
Through extraordinary personal stories, Sky News revisits 21 of the world’s biggest news events this century. 
  
SEASON 3: Polonium and The Piano Player (2020) 
Two Russian agents release a miniature nuclear weapon in a 5-star London hotel. But former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko is not the only victim. 
  
SEASON 2: What happened to Annie? (2019)  
In 2005, the body of 30-year-old Swedish woman, Annie Börjesson, was found on Prestwick beach in Scotland. Could one of the world’s most secretive security agencies be behind her death? 
 
SEASON 1: The Hunt for the Brinks-Mat Gold (2018) 
In 1983, an armed gang stole £26m in gold bars from a high-security depot near Heathrow Airport. Dubbed the crime of the century, the heist changed the face of Britain’s criminal landscape and the life of one undercover Scotland Yard detective.  
  

Episode Date
Unreliable Witness 6: Eleanor Williams – Inside
Mar 24, 2024
Unreliable Witness 5: I’m Coming for You
Mar 24, 2024
Unreliable Witness 4: The Witness Who Went Home
Mar 24, 2024
Unreliable Witness 3: I’m not a Psychopath
Mar 24, 2024
Unreliable Witness 2: Recipe for a Witch Hunt
Mar 24, 2024
Unreliable Witness 1: Who is Ellie Williams?
Mar 24, 2024
Introducing: Unreliable Witness
Mar 18, 2024
Patient 11: Episode 4 – Breaking free
Jan 28, 2024
Patient 11: Episode 3 – Escape Plan
Jan 28, 2024
Patient 11: Episode 2 – In harm’s way
Jan 28, 2024
Patient 11: Episode 1 – Locked-up and drugged
Jan 28, 2024
Introducing: Patient 11
Jan 22, 2024
StoryCast '21: EP 21/21 The Y2K Prison Bug
Dec 30, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP 20/21 The Queen's stuntman
Dec 20, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP 19/21 Michael Jackson - The Trial of the century
Dec 13, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP 18/21 The Shooting
Dec 06, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP 17/21 Batman raids Buckingham Palace
Nov 29, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP16/21 Escape the Taj Mumbai
Sep 27, 2021
StoryCast ’21: EP 15/21 Tim Peake: Britain’s first spacewalk
Sep 20, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP 14/21 Taking Down Saddam
Sep 13, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP 13/21 9/11 Janice Brooks: Inside the South Tower
Sep 06, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP 12/21 The Beirut Blast: Ghassan's story
Aug 02, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP 11/21 The Last Gun: Disarming the IRA
Jul 26, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP 10/21 On Stage with Amy Winehouse
Jul 19, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP 9/21 The UK Biker Wars
Jul 12, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP 8/21 Terror in Brussels Airport
Jul 05, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP7/21 A Football Fairy Tale
Jun 28, 2021
StoryCast ’21: EP 6/21 War Child
Jun 21, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP 5/21 Trapped: The Chile Miners
Jun 14, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP4/21 Migrant Rescue
Jun 07, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP3/21 Marathon Man
May 31, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP2/21 The hunt for Raoul Moat
May 24, 2021
StoryCast '21: EP1/21 Miracle Boy
May 17, 2021
Trailer: Storycast '21
May 10, 2021
Polonium & the Piano Player: PART 4 - The Reckoning
Aug 03, 2020
Polonium & the Piano Player: PART 3 - Victims and suspects
Jul 27, 2020
Polonium & the Piano Player: PART 2 - The Poisoning
Jul 20, 2020
Polonium & the Piano Player: PART 1 - A Nuclear Connection
Jul 13, 2020
Introducing...Polonium & the Piano Player
Jul 09, 2020
What happened to Annie? BONUS: The fight for key evidence
Mar 05, 2020
What happened to Annie? Update: Where we're at
Feb 26, 2020
What happened to Annie? PART 6: The search for answers
Dec 19, 2019
What happened to Annie? PART 5: The case for suicide?
Dec 17, 2019
What happened to Annie? PART 4: The CIA and Prestwick
Dec 12, 2019
What happened to Annie? PART 3: Testing the evidence
Dec 10, 2019
What happened to Annie? PART 2: The case for murder?
Dec 05, 2019
What happened to Annie? PART 1: The body on the beach
Dec 03, 2019
Trailer: What happened to Annie?
Nov 29, 2019
Beyond the hunt for the Brink's-Mat gold
Jul 12, 2019
The hunt for the Brink's-Mat gold: PART 2 - The Sting
Jun 24, 2019
The hunt for the Brink's-Mat gold: PART 1 - The Heist
Jun 10, 2019
Trailer: The hunt for the Brink's-Mat gold
May 28, 2019