Ex-Tory councillor’s wife ‘never’ intended X post to incite violence, court told
Lucy Connolly is challenging the sentence of 31 months imprisonment that she was given last October after posting following the Southport attacks.
The wife of a former Conservative county councillor who was jailed after an online rant about migrants on the day of the Southport attacks “never” intended to incite violence, the Court of Appeal has heard.
Lucy Connolly is challenging the sentence of 31 months imprisonment that she was given last October after admitting making the post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The post, which she later deleted, said: “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 came after three girls were stabbed and killed at a holiday club in Southport on the same date, sparking nationwide unrest.
On Thursday, Lord Justice Holroyde, Mr Justice Goss and Mr Justice Sheldon heard that she had not intended the post to incite violence.
Giving evidence from HMP Drake Hall in Eccleshall in Staffordshire, Connolly said that when she initially wrote the post on July 29 she was “really angry, really upset” and “distressed that those children had died” and that she knew how the parents felt.
She said: “Those parents still have to live a life of grief.
“It sends me into a state of anxiety and I worry about my children.”
The court heard that Connolly’s son died tragically around 14 years ago, and that news of the murders of the children in Southport had caused a resurgence of her anxiety around this.
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.”
When asked why she had deleted the post three and a half hours after posting it, Connolly added: “I calmed myself down, and I know that wasn’t an acceptable thing to say.
“It wasn’t the right thing to say, it wasn’t what I wanted to happen.”
The court heard that some days later Connolly posted an apology on X stating that she regretted her initial post and now realised that it was wrong in “every way”.
When asked why she apologised, Connolly said it was because she was “really upset” her husband had been brought into it, and he did not deserve his name being “dragged through the mud”.
Connolly told the court that during discussions with her barrister at the crown court, Liam Muir, she did not understand that by pleading guilty she was accepting that she intended to incite violence.
She said: “When I wrote that tweet there had been no violence and it was never my intention to cause any.”
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 Raymond Connolly, was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court last October after pleading guilty to a charge of inciting racial hatred.
Mr Connolly had been a Tory West Northamptonshire county councillor, but lost his seat in May.
He remains on the town council.
The hearing at the Court of Appeal continues, and is expected to end on Thursday afternoon
