Lucy Connolly’s 31-month prison sentence is ‘a shocking example of two-tier justice’, says former PM
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A mother jailed for a social media post after the Southport murders will bid to appeal against the sentence this week.
Lucy Connolly, a former childminder from Northampton, was jailed for 31 months after she posted on X calling for mass deportations and setting fire to asylum hotels “for all I care”.
She wrote: “I feel physically sick knowing what these [Southport] families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist, so be it.”
The post came after three girls were killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on July 29, provoking national unrest.
Connolly’s post was viewed 310,000 times in the three-and-a-half hours before Connolly deleted it.
Connolly, who is married to Raymond Connolly, a former Tory councillor, was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court last October after pleading guilty to a charge of inciting racial hatred.
Her bid to challenge her sentence is scheduled to be heard at the Court of Appeal in London on Thursday, according to court listings.
The 42-year-old was arrested on August 6 and police officers found other posts of her commenting on the sword attack carried out by Axel Rudakubana.
She had also sent a tweet commenting on the stabbings that read: “I bet my house it was one of these boat invaders.”
Judge Melbourne Inman KC, the Recorder of Birmingham, said while sentencing her that Connolly was “well aware how volatile the situation was”, adding that she had encouraged activity which threatened or endangered life.
Last month, Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, called for Connolly’s release.
“Lucy Connolly is a victim of a politicised two-tier justice system in Starmer’s Britain. She should not be in prison,” she said.
“Yes, her comments were crass, tasteless and vile, and I disagree with them. Lucy deleted them quickly and apologised for her error of judgment. That is why the sentence of 31 months’ custody for her first-time offence seems excessive.
“She has deliberately been made an example of to intimidate others into silence. [George] Orwell was out by 40 years. Otherwise, he was spot on.”
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Liz Truss, the former prime minister, also called for Connolly’s release, saying: “Lucy Connolly should be released immediately and reunited with her family.
“The severity of her sentence is completely unjustifiable and a shocking example of two-tier justice which now prevails in Britain.
“We are now suffering the consequences of a system that has been captured by Leftist ideology.”
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