Wife of Tory councillor refused bail following arrest on racial hatred charges
10 August 2024, 14:39 | Updated: 2 September 2024, 13:28
The wife of a Tory councillor who called on rioters to 'set fire to all migrant hotels' on social media has been refused bail following her arrest on racial hatred charges.
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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 both rioters and counter-protestors filtering through the UK's courts this week.
Several hotels housing asylum seekers became the target of far-right "thugs" last week, 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”.
Ms Connolly, who is a childminder from Northamptonshire, said in a now-deleted tweet: "Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the b******* for all I care, while you're at it take the treacherous government and politicians with them.
Read more: Named and shamed: Mugshots of rioters revealed as over 100 charged after violent disorder sweeps UK
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".
"She’s a good person and she’s not racist," he told the BBC.
"She’s got Somalian and Bangladeshi kids she looks after and she loves them like they’re her own."
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."
