Ex-Tory councillor's wife Lucy Connolly walks free from prison following jail term for hate tweet
An ex-Tory councillor's wife who was jailed for inciting racial hatred by posting a 'hate tweet' in the aftermath of the Southport terror attack has been released from prison.
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Lucy Connolly, wife of West Northamptonshire Conservative councillor Raymond Connolly, walked free from HMP Peterborough today after being sentenced last year to 31 months.
On the day Axel Rudakubana murdered three children in Southport, she posted 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.”
Ms Connolly pleaded guilty to inciting racial hatred by publishing and distributing “threatening or abusive” written material on X and was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court in October.
Her husband and 12-year-old daughter, as well as campaigners, had been calling for her release.
They criticised her sentence as too harsh, prompting allegations that she was a victim of 'two-tier justice', with those holding right-wing views treated more harshly under the law.
However, Sir Keir Starmer defended her sentence earlier this year.
The Prime Minister was asked in May about Connolly’s case after her Court of Appeal application against her jail term was dismissed.
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Asked during Prime Minister’s Questions whether her imprisonment was an “efficient or fair use” of prison, Sir Keir 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.”
Connolly’s post was viewed 310,000 times in three-and-a-half hours before she deleted it.
Lord Young of Acton, founder and director of the Free Speech Union, 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.”