The wife of a Conservative councillor who posted a hate-filled social media message to stir up racial hatred against asylum seekers on the day of the Southport attacks has been jailed for 31 months.
Lucy Connolly, who is married to West Northamptonshire councillor Raymond Connolly, took to X, formerly Twitter, on July 29, writing: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the bastards for all I care… If that makes me racist, so be it.”
The message came as rioting swept across towns and cities in England this summer, fuelled by disinformation about the suspect in the Southport killings of three children.
Connolly, 41, of Parkfield Avenue, Northampton, was sentenced at Birmingham crown court on Thursday, having pleaded guilty to inciting racial hatred.
Recorder of Birmingham Judge Melbourne Inman KC said of the Southport stabbings: “Some people used that tragedy as an opportunity to sow division and hatred, often using social media, leading to a number of towns and cities being disfigured by mindless and racist violence, intimidation and damage.
“It is strength of our society that it is both diverse and inclusive. There is always a very small minority of people who will seek an excuse to use violence and disorder causing injury, damage, loss and fear to wholly innocent members of the public and sentences for those who incite racial hatred and disharmony in our society are intended to both punish and deter.”
He said Connolly “well aware how volatile the situation was” when she posted her message, which went viral and was read directly by 310,000 people.
“That volatility led to serious disorder where mindless violence was used.”
The court heard she had privately messaged about the backlash to her Tweet, joking it had ““bitten me on the arse, lol”. She also suggested that if arrested she would deny responsibility and “play the mental health card”.
She ultimately deleted the message and her account, but not before the Tweet had gone viral.
The court also heard how Connolly had previously lost a son in tragic circumstances, and had sent a swathe of private and public messages in the wake of the killing of three children in Southport in late July. Some of those messages condemned the violence, and said “Tommy Robinson is not going to save us”.
Police trawled her electronic devices and social media accounts, and found another Tweet commenting on a sword attack which read: “I bet my house it was one of these boat invaders.”
On a video posted by Tommy Robinson, she had commented: “Somalian I guess” with a vomiting emoji.
Tom Muir, representing Connolly, told the court she had sent the message that landed her in the dock before serious violence had broken out in the riots.
“The horrendous way in which she lost her son, being turned away from the health service, can only have a drastic detrimental effect on someone”, he said.
“Whatever her intention was in posting the offending tweet, it was short-lived and she didn’t expect the violence that followed, and she quickly tried to quell it.”
At an earlier court hearing, Mr Connolly, who represents Delapre and Rushmere in Northamptonshire, said his wife regrets making the post, which she deleted after three and a half hours, and insisted she is “the opposite” of a racist.
“The stuff I hear on the TV is not really Lucy. She knows that she overstepped the mark and there is consequences for it”, he said.
“Hopefully she’ll be able to learn from this and move on with her life.
He left court on Thursday without commenting.
Connolly was told she will serve up to half her 31 months sentence before being released on licence.
The court heard she has “little insight into, or acceptance of” her actions.
In a separate prosecution, father-of-three Tyler Kay was jailed for 38 months for re-posting part of Connolly’s offending message.
The 26-year-old, of Ellfield Court, Northampton, admitted a charge of publishing material intended to stir up racial hatred.
Passing sentence on Kay after he pleaded guilty, a judge told him: “You posted as you did because you thought there were no consequences for yourself from stirring up racial hatred in others.
“The overall tone of the posts clearly reveals your fundamentally racist mindset.
“I am sure that when you intentionally created the posts you intended that racial hatred would be stirred up by your utterly repulsive, racist and shocking posts that have no place in a civilised society.”
