Wife of former Northants councillor loses appeal over sentence for racial hatred post
42 year old Lucy Connolly was jailed last October for tweets during the Southport attacks calling for hotels housing migrants to be set on fire.
Last updated 20th May 2025
The wife of a former Conservative councillor from Northampton, who was jailed after an online rant about migrants on the day of the Southport attacks, has lost her Court of Appeal bid to have the sentence reduced.
42 year old Lucy Connolly pleaded guilty to inciting racial hatred last October and was sentenced to 31 months.
It was over social media posts on X during the Southport attacks.
Lucy Connolly said in an X post on July 29 2024: "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."
The post followed three girls being stabbed and killed at a holiday club in Southport that day, sparking nationwide unrest.
It was viewed 310,000 times in three-and-a-half hours before Connolly deleted it.
It came after three girls were stabbed and killed at a holiday club in Southport on the same date, sparking nationwide unrest.
Last week Thursday 15 May Connolly told the Court of Appeal in London she "never" intended to incite violence and did not realise pleading guilty would mean she accepted that she had.
She said she had been "really angry" after the Southport attacks, but hours after posting the rant on X realised it was not an acceptable thing to say, so deleted it.
Adam King, representing Connolly, asked if she had intended for anyone to set fire to asylum hotels or "murder any politicians".
She replied: "Absolutely not."
Naeem Valli, for the prosecution, told the court the post was a reflection of her attitude towards immigrants.
He added: "At the time of creating the post, the applicant clearly intended the racial hatred would be stirred up and also intended to incite serious violence."
Earlier, he had asked Connolly if she believed the country was being "invaded" by immigrants.
She replied: "I believe that we have a massive number of people in the country that are unchecked, coming into the country and I believe that is a national security risk."
She added that it would be "absolutely incorrect" to say she did not want immigrants in the country.
Connolly, of Northampton, was arrested on August 6, by which point she had deleted her social media account, but other messages which included further racist remarks were uncovered by officers who seized her phone.
The former childminder, who is married to former councillor Raymond Connolly, was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court last October after pleading guilty to a charge of inciting racial hatred.
Today Lord Justice Holroyde, Mr Justice Goss and Mr Justice Sheldon, refused her application to appeal.
In a written judgment, Lord Justice Holroyde, said: "There is no arguable basis on which it could be said that the sentence imposed by the judge was manifestly excessive.
"The application for leave to appeal against sentence therefore fails and is refused."
He added that the principal ground of appeal "was substantially based on a version of events put forward by the applicant which we have rejected".
In a statement issued by a spokesperson, her husband Ray Connolly said the decision by the Court of Appeal to dismiss his wife Lucy's appeal was "shocking and unfair".
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."
Mr Raymond Connolly had been a Tory West Northamptonshire district councillor, but lost his seat in May.
He remains on the town council.