A TORY councillor’s wife will stay in jail after an appeal bid against her “harsh” sentence for a racist social media post was thrown out.
Lucy Connolly posted the comments on her X account just hours after three girls were knifed to death in Southport, Merseyside.
Lucy Connolly urged rioters to set migrant hotels alight
x.com/@LJCJ83The childminder published the comments on her X account[/caption]
The 41-year-old childminder wrote: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the b******* for all I care…
“If that makes me racist, so be it.”
She was jailed for 31 months in October after admitting publishing threatening or abusive material intending to stir up racial hatred.
Connolly launched bid against her “harsh” sentence but this was today thrown out by Court of Appeal judges.
They ruled “there is no arguable basis on which it could be said that the sentence imposed by the judge was manifestly excessive”.
Connolly is married to Raymond Connolly, who is Conservative vice chair of the committee on adult social care at West Northamptonshire Council.
He today said he was “heartbroken” the appeal bid was dismissed, adding: “My wife has paid a very high price for making a mistake and today the court has shown her no mercy”.
Mr Connolly also called the decision to throw the bid out “shocking and unfair” and claimed his wife was the victim of “two-tier justice”.
He said: “The 284 days of separation have been very hard, particularly on our 12-year-old girl. Lucy posted one nasty tweet when she was upset and angry about three little girls who were brutally murdered in Southport.
“She realised the tweet was wrong and deleted it within four hours. That did not mean Lucy was a ‘far right thug’ as Prime Minister Keir Starmer claimed.
“My wife Lucy is a good person and not a racist. As a childminder she took care of small children of African and Asian heritage; they loved Lucy as she loved them. My wife has paid a very high price for making a mistake and today the court has shown her no mercy.
“Lucy got more time in jail for one tweet than some paedophiles and domestic abusers get. I think the system wanted to make an example of Lucy so other people would be scared to say things about immigration. This is not the British way.”
While the Free Speech Union (FSU), which funded Connolly’s appeal bid, said: “This is a deeply disappointing judgment.
“No one disputes the tweet was offensive but the sentence of more than two-and-a-half years was plainly disproportionate.
“Two-and-a-half years for a single tweet is grossly disproportionate and it should trouble anyone who believes the law must be applied evenly, without fear or favour.”
Connolly shared a call to arms following the deaths of Bebe King, six, nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, in Southport on July 29.
Posts wrongly claimed monster Axel Rudakubana was a Muslim asylum seeker when he was actually born in Cardiff and raised Christian.
Riots erupted across the country as thugs clashed with police and targeted hotels housing asylum seekers.
After her post, Connolly sent a WhatsApp joking it had “bitten me on the a**e, lol”.
She also said if she were to get arrested over it, she would “play the mental health card”.
Mr Connolly previously defended his wife after she pleaded guilty – saying the case had been “traumatic” for her and their three children.
He revealed their son died in 2012 after a series of NHS blunders so when his wife sees any child get harmed, “she will kick off”.
The councillor also branded Connolly “an upset housewife” and “just a middle aged mother” who got dragged into the situation by misinformation spreading online.
He added: “The stuff I hear is not really Lucy, she’s probably the opposite of what she’s having to admit to but she knows she’s overstepped the mark and there’s consequences for it,” he said.
“Hopefully she’ll be able to learn from this and move on with her life.”
Connolly also tried to make a U-turn on her vile comments – claiming she was acting on “false and malicious” information.
But the Crown Prosecution Service said she told police she did not like immigrants in her custody interview.
Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS special crime and counter terrorism unit, said: “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.”
PAConnolly was jailed for 31 months last October[/caption]
PARaymond Connolly defended his wife[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
