A mother who was jailed after making controversial social media posts in the wake of the Southport stabbings should be freed, senior Tories and Reform UK figures have claimed.
Lucy Connolly, 42, who admitted inciting racial hatred, was jailed last October for two years and seven months after failing to secure release on temporary licence.
Ex-Home Secretary Suella Braverman told the Telegraph that the 31-month jail sentence imposed on the Northamptonshire childminder was “excessive” and claimed that she was the victim of a “politicised two-tier justice system”.
Lucy Connolly posted her tweet on the same day as three girls were fatally stabbed in Southport X/social media
Liz Truss
GETTYBraverman said: “Lucy Connolly is a victim of a politicised two-tier justice system in Starmer’s Britain. She should not be in prison.
“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.”
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss also joined the growing number of political figures voicing anger about two-tier justice.
Truss said: “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.
Suella Braverman
PA
A photo from the summer riots in SouthportPA
Richard Tice
PA
Lucy Connolly was jailed for 31 months at Birmingham Crown Court for stirring up racial hatred on XNorthants Police“Tony Blair’s constitutional vandalism in the mid-2000s abolished judicial accountability. We are now suffering the consequences of a system that has been captured by leftist ideology.
“Judicial appointments should be the responsibility of a democratically accountable Lord Chancellor - as they were prior to 2005.”
Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice also demanded her release, warning: “Real criminals convicted of violent crimes are being let out while she is detained.”
He added: “Lucy is the victim of two-tier justice because she is white and Sir Keir Starmer ordered the judiciary to impose stiff sentences last August. It is as simple as that.”
Connolly is looking to appeal her sentence by arguing the trial judge made a mistake over categorising the severity of her crime.
The 42-year-old is also expected to claim the judge failed to consider mitigating factors, including the loss of her 19-month-old son in a hospital blunder.
Connolly, who voiced support for deportations and burning down asylum hotels, removed her post within four hours but it had been viewed 310,000 times and even screenshotted.
Following her sentence last October, Connolly was initially held in HMP Peterborough, where her attempts to secure freedom under electronic tag, either through ROTL or release on home detention curfew, failed.
Probation documents suggest her application for ROTL is being delayed until a risk assessment is carried out.
However, there have also been indications that prison bosses have resisted it on the grounds of the media or public interest in her case.
An internal note, seen by The Telegraph, said: “It is not necessarily going to happen due to the public interest.”
Another added: “The media interest has been raised as an issue in terms of any future ROTL applications.”
However, a number of prison service sources have told The Telegraph that Connolly’s application for ROTL had been blocked and said it was being considered by the governor at HMP Drake Hall in Staffordshire, where she was transferred in January.
A Prison Service spokesman said: “Decisions on RTOL and home detention curfew are made following uncompromising risk assessments to prioritise public safety.
“These are discretionary schemes, and each case is rigorously scrutinised, considering the severity of the offence, the prisoner’s conduct and the potential impact on victims and the community.”
