Lucy Connolly, who was jailed for inciting racial hatred following the Southport terror attack, is set to be released from prison on Thursday. The wife of Conservative councillor Raymond Connolly will walk free after serving time for her hate-filled social media post, according to the Telegraph.
Connolly was sentenced to 31 months in custody at Birmingham Crown Court in October last year. She had pleaded guilty to inciting racial hatred by publishing threatening and abusive written material on X.
The controversial tweet
Her post came on the day three children were murdered by Axel Rudakubana in Southport. Connolly wrote on X: "Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the bastards for all I care… if that makes me racist so be it."
The inflammatory message was viewed 310,000 times in just three-and-a-half hours before she deleted it. She later apologised for the post that sparked widespread condemnation.
Political defence of sentence
Connolly's sentence has faced criticism as being too harsh, but Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer defended it when asked about her case in May. Her Court of Appeal application against her jail term had been dismissed prior to his comments during Prime Minister's Questions.
When asked whether her imprisonment was an "efficient or fair use" of prison, Starmer said: "Sentencing is a matter for our courts, and I celebrate the fact that we have independent courts in this country. I am strongly in favour of free speech, we've had free speech in this country for a very long time and we protect it fiercely. But I am equally against incitement to violence against other people. I will always support the action taken by our police and courts to keep our streets and people safe."
Criticism of imprisonment
Lord Young of Acton, founder and director of the Free Speech Union, criticised her imprisonment as a "national scandal". He said: "The fact that Lucy Connolly has spent more than a year in prison for a single tweet that she quickly deleted and apologised for is a national scandal, particularly when Labour MPs, councillors and anti-racism campaigners who've said and done much worse have avoided jail. The same latitude they enjoyed should have been granted to Lucy."
Sources used: "Telegraph" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
