Tory councillor’s wife jailed for Southport tweet could be released in weeks

A woman who called for hotels housing migrants to be set alight could be freed from prison within weeks, it’s been reported.

Childminder Lucy Connolly was found guilty of inciting racial hatred after sending the X post on the day of the Southport attacks.

But the wife of former Tory councillor Raymond Connolly could soon be freed, The Sun reports, as she could be released from HMP Peterborough in August having served less than half of her sentence.

Her post, which was viewed more than 300,000 times in the four hours before she deleted it, said: ‘Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the b******* for all I care… if that makes me racist so be it.’

The post was prompted by false rumours which circulated on social media following the murder of three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, which suggested the attacker was an illegal immigrant.

Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were all killed by Axel Rudakubana, who was aged 17 at the time.

The attack on the class, which injured eight other children and two adults, sparked rioting across the country which has led to dozens of prison sentences.

Connolly, 41, was sentenced to 31 months in prison last October, and in May of this year she lost an appeal to reduce her sentence.

Dismissing her appeal, Lord Justice Holroyde said: ‘There is no arguable basis on which it could be said that the sentence imposed by the judge was manifestly excessive.

‘The application for leave to appeal against sentence therefore fails and is refused.’

The Free Speech Union (FSU), which funded Connolly’s appeal bid, described the judgement as ‘deeply disappointing’, and politicians including Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch have called for her release and called her sentence ‘disproportionately severe’.

But Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended the sentence, saying he would ‘always support’ the UK’s justice system.

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