Tory councillor's wife handed 31-month sentence after 'inciting' Southport riots

She pleaded guilty at Northampton Crown Court last month to a charge of inciting racial hatred by publishing and distributing “threatening or abusive” written material on X, formerly Twitter.

The 41-year-old posted a message which read: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f*****g hotels full of the b*****s for all I care… If that makes me racist, so be it.”

Connolly, of Parkfield Avenue in Northampton, appeared via a video link from HMP Peterborough where she had been remanded in custody after being denied bail.

Sentencing Mrs Connolly, Judge Melbourne Inman KC said: “You intended to incite serious violence. What you did encouraged activity which threatened or endangered life.

“You sought and achieved widespread dissemination of your statement by posting it on social media.

“It is a strength of our society that it is both diverse and inclusive.”

During the sentencing the court heard how, after being arrested, Lucy Connolly told police she had no issues with legal immigration.

Prosecutor, Naeem Valli, told the court digital investigations of her phone and X account were conducted by police in early August which found previous posts about race and illegal immigration.

The 41-year-old former childminder sent a WhatsApp message on August 5 joking that the tweet to her 10,000 followers had “bitten me on the a**e, lol.”

Connolly also sent a message saying she intended to work her notice period as a childminder “on the sly” despite being de-registered.

Mr Valli added: “She then goes on to say that if she were to get arrested, she would play the mental health card.”

Defending, Tom Muir told the court: “She acknowledges her behaviour” and that Mrs Connolly stood by her guilty plea.

He also said Connolly had lost a child in horrific circumstances and was distinguished from other offenders using social media in that she had sent the tweet at the heart of the case before any violence against asylum seekers had started.

Mr Muir said: “The horrendous way in which she lost her son, being turned away from the health service, can only have a drastic detrimental effect on someone.

“Whatever her intention was in posting the offending tweet, it was short-lived, and she didn’t expect the violence that followed, and she quickly tried to quell it.”

The case was transferred to Birmingham to avoid any potential appearance of bias given Connolly’s husband holds a political post in the Northamptonshire area.

Mr Connolly attended the sentencing in Birmingham and left the court without comment.

After his wife pleaded guilty in September, he said she regrets making the post and is “the opposite” of a racist. Mrs Connolly had deleted the post hours after making it, with her husband saying she had been an “upset housewife” posting about what turned out to be misinformation about the Southport stabbings.

Tyler Kay, a 26-year-old father of three, was also jailed for 38 months on August 9 after re-posting part of Connolly’s X message.

He admitted a charge of publishing material intended to stir up racial hatred.

Connolly issued an apology for her post before her arrest, saying she had acted on “false and malicious” information.

When she gave her guilty plea, Head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Unit, Frank Ferguson, said: “Using threatening, abusive or insulting language to rile up racism online is unacceptable and is breaking the law.

“During the police interview, Lucy Connolly stated she had strong views on immigration, told officers she did not like illegal 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.”