{"id":155880,"date":"2024-10-17T17:07:17","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T17:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/17\/wife-of-tory-councillor-jailed-for-31-months-over-social-media-post-stirring-up-racial-hatred\/"},"modified":"2024-10-17T17:07:17","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T17:07:17","slug":"wife-of-tory-councillor-jailed-for-31-months-over-social-media-post-stirring-up-racial-hatred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/17\/wife-of-tory-councillor-jailed-for-31-months-over-social-media-post-stirring-up-racial-hatred\/","title":{"rendered":"Wife of Tory councillor jailed for 31 months over social media post stirring up racial hatred"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Wife<\/div>


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The wife of a Conservative councillor has been jailed for 31 months after pleading guilty to publishing written material to stir up racial hatred after the Southport stabbings.<\/p>\n

Former childminder Lucy Connolly published a post<\/a><\/strong> on her X account, which she later deleted, that called for “mass deportation now”, and for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set on fire, adding: “If that makes me racist, so be it.”<\/p>\n

Her comments were viewed 310,000 times and reposted by 940 other X users.<\/p>\n

She wrote the post on the day three young girls were killed in a knife attack<\/a><\/strong> at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, Merseyside, on 29 July.<\/p>\n

False information claiming the perpetrator was a Muslim asylum seeker spread online and led to riots and unrest<\/a><\/strong> in cities and towns across the UK.<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old, from Northampton<\/a><\/strong>, later apologised for acting on “false and malicious” information.<\/p>\n

Connolly, who is married to West Northamptonshire councillor Raymond Connolly, was jailed at Birmingham<\/a><\/strong> Crown Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to publishing written material to stir up racial hatred.<\/p>\n

Mr Connolly declined to comment as he left the court. He said during an earlier hearing that the post was completely out of character for his wife.<\/p>\n

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\n Image:<\/span>
\n Raymond Connolly, pictured following a previous court appearance by his wife, declined to comment to the media on Thursday. Pic: PA
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Sentencing Connolly, Judge Melbourne Inman KC said of the Southport stabbings: “Some people used that tragedy as an opportunity to sow division and hatred, often using social media, leading to a number of towns and cities being disfigured.”<\/p>\n

He added: “When you published those words you were well aware how volatile the situation was.<\/p>\n

“That volatility led to serious disorder where mindless violence was used.”<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
Israel ‘checking possibility’ Hamas leader killed<\/a><\/strong>
Liam Payne obituary: Fame was never easy<\/a><\/strong>
Great white shark washes up on beach<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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The judge added she had encouraged activity which threatened or endangered life.<\/p>\n

The sentencing hearing was told Connolly sent a WhatsApp message on 5 August joking the tweet to her 10,000 followers had “bit me on the arse, lol”.<\/p>\n

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She also sent another tweet commenting on a sword attack which read: “I bet my house it was one of these boat invaders,” the court heard.<\/p>\n

Connolly, who appeared via a video link from HMP Peterborough, was ordered to serve 40% of her 31-month sentence in prison before being released on licence.<\/p>\n

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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The wife of a Conservative councillor has been jailed for 31 months after pleading guilty to publishing written material to stir up racial hatred after the Southport stabbings. Former childminder Lucy Connolly published a post on her X account, which she later deleted, that called for “mass deportation now”, and for hotels housing asylum seekers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/10\/768x432\/skynews-raymond-connolly-lucy-connolly_6718886.jpg?20241017154457","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[3288,31848,4267,3200,31,418,4306,2291,22102,492,942],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155880"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155882,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155880\/revisions\/155882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}