Tory councillor's wife faces 'substantial' jail term after calling for attacks on asylum seekers

2 September 2024, 13:06 | Updated: 2 September 2024, 13:51

The wife of a Tory councillor who called on rioters to 'set fire to all migrant hotels' on social media has admitted to stirring up racial hatred.

Lucy Connolly, the wife of Tory councillor Raymond Connolly, made the remarks in a tweet hours after the death of three girls in a knife attack in Southport.

The attack triggered widespread violence across the country, with false information claiming the Southport attacker was a Syrian asylum seeker spreading online.

Appearing in Northampton Crown Court on Monday, Ms Connolly, of Parkfield Avenue, Northampton, pleaded guilty to the charges against her, with the judge warning the childminder she will likely face a "substantial custodial sentence".

The 41-year-old called for "mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the bas***** for all I care... If that makes me racist, so be it."

"If that makes me racist, so be it," she is said to have typed.

Lucy Connolly's husband, West Northamptonshire councillor Raymond Connolly, watched from the public gallery in courtroom four at Northampton Crown Court.

Ms Connolly pleaded guilty to publishing threatening or abusive material intending to stir up racial hatred, enterIng her guilty plea via a video-link to HMP Peterborough.

The 41-year-old mother was seen to backtrack following the comments, later being seen to apologise.

“Acting on information that I now know to be false and malicious, and in a moment of extreme outrage and emotion, I posted words that I realise were wrong in every way," she said after the social media comments were exposed.

Speaking following her guilty plea on Monday, Judge Adrienne Lucking KC told Lucy Connolly she's likely to be sent to jail when sentencing takes place next month.

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The judge added that the case was being transferred to Birmingham from Northampton in a bid to avoid any potential bias given Connolly's husband's political position locally.

Judge Lucking said: "Sentencing will entirely be a matter for the judge on the next occasion but it's likely to be a substantial custodial sentence.

"In the meantime, you are remanded in custody."

She will now be sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on October 17.

Recent weeks have seen both rioters and counter-protestors filter through the UK's courts for sentencing, with boy, 12, the youngest to be sentenced so far.

Ms Connolly, who is a childminder from Northamptonshire, added in the now-deleted tweet: "while you're at it take the treacherous government and politicians with them."

Several hotels housing asylum seekers became the target of far-right "thugs" in the wake of the Southport riots, with a growing number of armchair rioters handed jail terms for sending messages "inciting racial hatred".

Wearing a pink jumper while sat in police custody, Ms Connolly spoke only to confirm she understood the charge in Nottingham Magistrates’ Court.

She will now appear at Northampton Crown Court, with District Judge Rahim Allen-Khimani telling her the court the matter was “too serious for this court to deal with”.

She continued: “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.”

"I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist, so be it."

She has since apologised for her comments, saying she acted on "false and malicious" information.

Her husband, Tory councillor Raymond Connolly, said she had shared one "stupid, spur of the moment tweet out of frustration and quickly deleted it".

Northamptonshire Police said a 41-year-old woman had been arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.

In a Twitter update on Tuesday evening, Ms Connolly said: “I am someone who cares enormously about children and the similarity between those beautiful children who were so brutally attacked, and my own daughter, overwhelmed me with horror, but I should not have expressed that horror in the way that I did.

"This has been an invaluable lesson for me in realising how wrong and inaccurate things appearing on social media can be."