Court of appeal dismisses hate tweet childminder’s sentence challenge

Lucy Connolly claimed she had not been fully aware of what she was pleading guilty to, but the appeal judges found her evidence 'incredible'.

By Sarah Ward

Lucy Connolly said on X that hotels housing illegal migrants should be set on fire.

Lucy Connolly’s bid to have her prison sentence reduced has been dismissed by the court of appeal.

The childminder, whose husband Ray is a Northampton Tory councillor, was jailed for 31 months last year after posting a hate tweet on X on July 29, the evening of the child murders in Southport, telling her 9,000 followers that people should set fire to hotels housing illegal immigrants.

Online misinformation about the identity of the Southport killer spread quickly and in the days after the murders race riots broke out across the country, with hundreds arrested for violence.

Fortunately, fears of rioting in Northampton, came to nothing last August.

Connolly, who is in her early 40s, appeared at the court of appeal in London via videolink last week to argue against the sentence imposed in Birmingham last October, and this morning the court of appeal judges led by Justice Holroyde, published their decision, concluding there were no grounds for reducing her jail term. Connolly had pleaded guilty last year to inciting racial hatred, an offence under the Public Order Act 1986.

During the appeal, Connolly’s barrister Adam King had argued her sentence should be lessened on the grounds that Connolly did not understand what she had been pleading guilty to, as the Northants based defence lawyer Liam Muir had not advised her properly.