{"id":361873,"date":"2025-08-21T11:02:43","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T11:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/361873\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T11:02:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T11:02:43","slug":"lucy-connolly-released-from-prison-after-race-hate-post-on-x","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/361873\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucy Connolly released from prison after race hate post on X"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harriet Heywood<\/p>\n

BBC News, Northamptonshire<\/p>\n

\"X.comX.com<\/p>\n

Lucy Connolly’s online post in the wake of the Southport killings led her to a 31-month jail term<\/p>\n

A woman who was jailed for stirring up racial hatred in the aftermath of the Southport attack has been released from prison.<\/p>\n

Lucy Connolly, 42, whose husband serves on Northampton Town Council, pleaded guilty in September after posting the expletive-ridden message on X the day three girls were stabbed in Southport in July 2024. <\/p>\n

Connolly, from Northampton, called for “mass deportation now” and urged her followers on X to “set fire” to hotels housing asylum seekers.<\/p>\n

She was released from HMP Peterborough earlier after she was handed a 31-month prison sentence in October at Birmingham Crown Court.<\/p>\n

How one woman’s racist tweet sparked a free speech row<\/a><\/p>\n

It is understood Connolly was a passenger in a white taxi which left HMP Peterborough via the vehicle airlock, a set of two gates exiting the prison, shortly after 10:00 BST.<\/p>\n

Once the external gate of the airlock had opened, it was reported the taxi drove off down the road past reporters.<\/p>\n

In October, Connolly was ordered to serve 40% of her sentence in prison before being released on licence.<\/p>\n

\"NorthamptonshireNorthamptonshire Police<\/p>\n

The former childminder posted her tweet on X on 29 July and was arrested on 6 August 2024<\/p>\n

The former childminder posted her tweet on X on 29 July 2024.<\/p>\n

On 6 August 2024 she was arrested, by which point she had deleted her social media account, but other messages were found by officers after they had seized her phone.<\/p>\n

The post was viewed 310,000 times in the three-and-a-half hours before she deleted it.<\/p>\n

Later in court she admitted to inciting racial hatred by publishing and distributing “threatening or abusive” written material on X.<\/p>\n

Connolly’s husband, Raymond, is a Northampton town councillor and former West Northamptonshire district councillor.<\/p>\n

He had defended his wife, saying she was “a good person and not a racist” and that she had “paid a very high price for making a mistake”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lucy Connolly is thought to have left the prison in a taxi<\/p>\n

Her sentence had been criticised as being too harsh, but Sir Keir Starmer defended<\/a> it.<\/p>\n

On 21 May, during Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir was asked whether Connolly’s imprisonment was an “efficient or fair use” of prison. <\/p>\n

He responded: “Sentencing is a matter for our courts, and I celebrate the fact that we have independent courts in this country.<\/p>\n

“I am strongly in favour of free speech, we’ve had free speech in this country for a very long time and we protect it fiercely.<\/p>\n

“But I am equally against incitement to violence against other people. I will always support the action taken by our police and courts to keep our streets and people safe.”<\/p>\n

In May Court of Appeal judges refused her appeal to reduce<\/a> the sentence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harriet Heywood BBC News, Northamptonshire X.com Lucy Connolly’s online post in the wake of the Southport killings led…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,393,4884,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-361873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115066422270399776","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}