Tory councilor’s wife jailed for racial hatred tweet ‘to appeal against verdict’

Lucy Connolly, who is married to West Northamptonshire councilor Raymond Connolly, said in an X post on July 29: “Mass deportations now, burn all the damn hotels full of shit.” *For all I care… if that makes me racist then it should be like that.”

The 41-year-old former childminder was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to a charge of inciting racial hatred.

Connolly’s husband said she planned to appeal the ruling, which he said was political, MailOnline reported.

Mr Connolly told the website: “She will appeal and I will support the legal process no matter what they do.”

“The problem is, I was always told it wasn’t political, but today it seems like it is.”

Connolly’s post was viewed 310,000 times within three and a half hours before she deleted it.

She sent a WhatsApp message on August 5, joking that the tweet to her 10,000 followers “bit me in the ass lol.”

Connolly, of Northampton, was arrested on August 6 and officers found additional posts containing racist comments on her phone.

She had sent a tweet commenting on a sword attack that read: “I bet my house it was one of those boat invaders.”

Another post sent by Connolly, who commented on a video posted by Tommy Robinson, said “Somalian I suspect” accompanied by a vomit emoji.

Responding to a tweet that said Islamophobia has “no place in society,” Connolly replied: “Shit, that’s not even a word.”

Connolly also sent a message saying she intended to serve her notice period as a childminder “secretly,” despite being deregistered.

Prosecutor Naeem Valli said Connolly posted a message saying she would “play the mental health card” if she was ever arrested.

On July 29, three girls were stabbed and killed at a holiday club in Southport, sparking nationwide unrest.

The Birmingham arbitrator, Judge Melbourne Inman KC, said in handing down the verdict that Connolly was “well aware of how volatile the situation was”.

The judge said: “As everyone is aware, this volatility led to serious unrest in a number of parts of the country where senseless violence was used to cause injury and damage to entirely innocent members of the public and their property.”

He added that Connolly promoted activities that threatened or endangered life.