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The wife of a Conservative Party councillor has admitted publishing a social media post stirring up racial hatred against asylum seekers on the day of the Southport knife killings.
Lucy Connolly, 41, appeared at Northampton Crown Court via video link to HMP Peterborough on Monday, when she pleaded guilty to publishing threatening or abusive material intending to stir up racial hatred.
Wearing a flower-patterned short-sleeved dress, the 41-year-old childminder spoke only to enter her plea and confirm she could hear the judge during a hearing that lasted seven minutes.
Her husband, West Northamptonshire councillor Raymond Connolly, watched from the public gallery in the courtroom.
A previous hearing was told Connolly, of Parkfield Avenue, Northampton, posted a message to X/Twitter, on the day three young girls were stabbed to death in Southport, which read: “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.”
Adjourning the defendant’s case for sentence at Birmingham Crown Court on 17 October, Judge Adrienne Lucking KC told her the ordering of pre-sentence reports was no indication of the likely sentence. The judge said the case was being transferred to Birmingham to avoid any potential appearance of bias given Connolly’s husband held a political post in the local area.
Judge Lucking told Connolly: “Sentencing will entirely be a matter for the judge on the next occasion, but it’s likely to be a substantial custodial sentence.
“In the meantime, you are remanded in custody.”
Speaking outside court after the case, Mr Connolly said the last few weeks have been “quite traumatic” for his wife and children and he feels “kind of relieved”.
He said his wife regrets making the post, which she deleted within two hours, is “the opposite” of a racist, and had been an “upset housewife” posting about what transpired to be misinformation about the Southport stabbings.
He told reporters: “The stuff I hear on the TV is not really Lucy. She knows that she overstepped the mark and there is consequences for it. Hopefully she’ll be able to learn from this and move on with her life.”
The councillor, who represents Delapre and Rushmere, said he has received messages of support from residents asking him not to resign.
“I’ve had really good support from my fellow councillors,” he added. “It’s not affected my role.”
A father-of-three was jailed at Northampton Crown Court for 38 months on 9 August after reposting part of Connolly’s X message.
Tyler Kay, 26, of Ellfield Court, Northampton, admitted a charge of publishing material intended to stir up racial hatred.
Passing sentence on Kay after he pleaded guilty, Judge Lucking 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.”
Connolly issued an apology for her X post before her arrest, saying she had acted on “false and malicious” information.
In a statement issued after the guilty plea, the Crown Prosecution Service said Connolly posted on X hours after the Southport killings, having encountered false information online that the perpetrator was a Muslim asylum seeker who had entered the country on a small boat.
Connolly was interviewed by police on 6 August and was charged three days later.
Commenting on the proceedings, Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Unit, said: “Using threatening, abusive or insulting language to rile up racism online is unacceptable and is breaking the law.
“During police interview Lucy Connolly stated she had strong views on immigration, told officers she did not like immigrants and claimed that children were not safe from them.
“It is not an offence to have strong or differing political views, but it is an offence to incite racial hatred – and that is what Connolly has admitted doing.
“The prosecution case included evidence which showed that racist tweets were sent out from Mrs Connolly’s X account both in the weeks and months before the Southport attacks – as well as in the days after.
“Connolly wrongly thought that she could escape justice by hiding behind a screen, but today she has pleaded guilty and admitted her crime. She will now face the consequences of her actions.”
