Sky launches powerful series from Stern & Wild client about the UK’s grooming gang crisis

This week’s launch of the shocking three-part true-crime documentary GROOMED: THE TRUTH BEHIND THE LIE directed by Stern & Wild filmmaker Katie Hindley has generated huge coverage in the press and across online platforms.

Described as “powerful and important” by the Daily Mail and “incisive” by the Guardian, the series examines the truth behind the national prevalence of grooming gangs in the UK through the lens of Barrow teenager Ellie Williams whose allegations of grooming tore her town apart and led to her being sentenced to eight and a half years in jail. The series asks whether the focus on proving one young woman a liar led to denial of a wider grooming problem?

Developed and filmed over four years, the series sheds new light on Ellie’s case, as well as uncovering accounts from other women in Barrow whose allegations of abuse by a group of predominantly Asian men were dismissed or ignored. Significantly, it also examines how far-right groups have weaponised such cases to fuel outrage and mistrust while agencies, wary of racism accusations, have often avoided confronting perpetrators’ ethnicity. 

Katie wrote about the project and the courage of the victims she met in last week’s Radio Times. “As our documentary airs – and with the Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs now under way – there are, undoubtedly, abusers still out there,” she said. “I hope that, as a society, we finally learn to value the opinions and experiences of young women who have been ignored for far too long.”

The series is co-produced by Sandpaper Films and Full Story Films and draws on the journalism of Sky News’ Unreliable Witness podcast. It is directed by Katie and Ceri Isfryn. Henry Singer, Catey Sexton and Susannah Price are Exec Producers for Sandpaper Films; Farah Qayum is Series Producer, Alexandra McArdle is Senior Producer and Bill Mostyn is Producer.  Siobhan Sinnerton and Vesna Cudic are Exec Producers for Full Story Films and Liz Lane is Producer.

The series is available to watch on Sky Documentaries and streaming service NOW.