7 August 2025, 23:05 | Updated: 7 August 2025, 23:13
Reform’s police advisor defends jailed Lucy Connolly, claiming her ‘set fire’ to migrant hotels post ‘did not insight violence’.
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LBC
Reform’s police and crime advisor has defended the wife of an ex-Tory councillor who was jailed over an online post in which she urged others to ‘set fire’ to migrant hotels in the wake of the Southport attack.
Colin Sutton, a former police officer who helped bring infamous serial killer Levi Bellfield to justice, was asked by LBC’s Henry Riley whether he thought the jailing of Lucy Connolly was justified, to which he insisted “no”.
Connolly, who is married to former West Northamptonshire councillor Raymond Connolly, was sentenced to 31 months in prison at Birmingham Crown Court in October, having pleaded guilty to inciting racial hatred.
Insisting the tweet posted amid heightened tensions in the wake of the Southport attack was “horrible”, the former cop told LBC: “I think she tweeted something and was persuaded to plead guilty”.
“To incite? I don’t actually think what she tweeted – it was horrible; it shouldn’t have been tweeted, but I don’t think If you say ‘for all I care’ it’s incitement.
“That’s nothing like was said at Glastonbury.” Mr Sutton added, drawing parallels with comments made by punk-rap duo Bob Vylan.
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Henry Riley and Colin Sutton on Lucy Connolly
It comes amid reports that Connolly could be released from behind bars “within weeks”.
Sources told The Standard that Connolly is due to be released from HMP Peterborough next month subject to conditions.
“She didn’t celebrate it,” Mr Sutton insisted, highlighting that the prisoner used “for all I care” in the tweet, which he suggests clears the offender of incitement charges.
“Where’s the incitement? You know, there’s no incitement if you say ‘for all I care'”.
“It was horrible, she shouldn’t have done it,” he continued, admitting that the comment “doesn’t give her any credit”.
“But that’s a different thing to saying that she should have pleaded guilty to a very serious offence… And she’s not alone in this, she was persuaded to plead guilty on the basis that it was thought, well, ‘if you plead not guilty and get convicted, you’re going to have much bigger sentence’.”
Lucy Connolly was jailed last year after making a post on X targeted at illegal immigrants, following the Southport attacks.
Picture:
Northamptonshire Police
Ms Connolly was jailed after she took to X to call for ‘mass deportations’ and urged people to set fire to all the hotels as riots were sweeping across the country in the aftermath of the murder of three girls in Southport.
She wrote: “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.”
“That’s not calling for it,” Mr Sutton continued.
“That phrase, ‘for all I care’, that’s nothing like was said at Glastonbury; that’s nothing like we hear shouted on the streets of Westminster every Saturday for however long it was”.
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