Wife of former Tory councillor loses appeal against sentence for racial hatred post

The wife of a former Conservative councillor has lost an appeal against her 31-month prison sentence for an online rant about migrants on the day of the Southport attacks.

The judgment handed down by Lord Justice Holroyd at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday said there was "no arguable basis" that Lucy Connolly's original sentence was "manifestly excessive".

"The application for leave to appeal against sentence therefore fails and is refused," it said.

Connolly, whose husband Raymond Connolly was a Tory West Northamptonshire councillor until he lost his seat in May, was arrested on 6 August 2024 after calling for "mass deportation now" in an X post on 29 July, which also said hotels housing asylum seekers should be set on fire.

"If that makes me racist so be it," she wrote.

The post was viewed 310,000 times in the three-and-a-half hours before Connolly deleted it.

She was sentenced to 31 months in prison at Birmingham Crown Court last October, after pleading guilty to a charge of inciting racial hatred. She was ordered to serve 40% of the sentence in prison before being released on licence.

Read more from Sky NewsTommy Robinson due for prison releaseSecond man appears in court over Starmer firesPolice pepper sprayed man, 92, at care home

Connolly shared her X post on the same day three young girls were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport last year.

False information claiming the perpetrator was a Muslim asylum seeker spread online, leading to riots and unrest in multiple locations across the UK.

Axel Rudakubana, 18, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 52 years in January after pleading guilty to murdering Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar in Southport that day.

Connolly, from Northampton, later apologised for acting on "false and malicious" information.

Reacting to the appeal decision, her husband described it as "shocking and unfair", adding that Connolly is a "good person and not a racist".

Southport murders resurfaced anxiety over son's death

Connolly last week told judges she was "really angry, really upset" and "distressed that those children had died" when she shared her X post.

She said via videolink from prison that her own son died tragically around 14 years ago and that news of the children's murders in Southport had caused a resurgence of grief-related anxiety.

"Those parents still have to live a life of grief," she said. "It sends me into a state of anxiety and I worry about my children."

But in his judgment on Tuesday, Lord Justice Holroyd said that the principal ground of Connolly's appeal was "substantially based on a version of events put forward by [her]", which he and his colleagues Mr Justice Goss and Mr Justice Sheldon "rejected".

He said: "We of course have every sympathy with the applicant over the death of her son, and we can understand why she remains angry about the circumstances of his death."

The judge said he "therefore accepts" that the events in Southport "had an impact on her which went beyond that felt by many others", but: "As the judge rightly said, she did not post a message of support and sympathy to the victims of the Southport attack and the bereaved."

Connolly also told the judges that, despite conversations with her legal team, she had not understood that by pleading guilty she was accepting that she intended to incite violence.

When asked if she intended for anybody to set asylum hotels on fire, Connolly said: "Absolutely not."

But Lord Justice Holroyd said he found her to be "intelligent and articulate", and was therefore "unable" to accept that she "entered her guilty plea with no understanding of what it entailed".

Defendant 'took care of children of African heritage'

In a statement released shortly after the judgment on Tuesday, Mr Connolly insisted that his wife is "not a racist".

"As a childminder she took care of small children of African and Asian heritage; they loved Lucy as she loved them," he said.

"My wife has paid a very high price for making a mistake and today the court has shown her no mercy. Lucy got more time in jail for one tweet than some paedophiles and domestic abusers get."

He said he believes the "system wanted to make an example" of his wife to ensure they were "scared to say things about immigration".

"This is not the British way," he said.

He added: "The 284 days of separation have been very hard, particularly on our 12-year-old girl.

"Lucy posted one nasty tweet when she was upset and angry about three little girls who were brutally murdered in Southport. She realised the tweet was wrong and deleted it within four hours. That did not mean Lucy was a 'far right thug' as Prime Minister Keir Starmer claimed."

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.