Mum Jailed Over Shocking Tweet After Southport Tragedy Fights for Freedom

The wife of a former Conservative councillor is still waiting to find out if she’ll be released from prison, after appealing the 31-month sentence she received for a hateful post she made on social media following the Southport stabbings.

Lucy Connolly, from Northampton, was jailed last October after pleading guilty to inciting racial hatred over a disturbing post she made on X (formerly Twitter). In it, she wrote: “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.” It came on the same day three young girls were fatally stabbed at a holiday club — a tragedy that sent shockwaves across the country, reported the Sky.

Now, Connolly’s legal team has argued she never intended for anyone to actually commit violence and that the post was written in the heat of the moment, driven by grief and anger. Speaking to the Court of Appeal via video from HMP Drake Hall, Connolly said she was “really angry, really upset” when she posted it. “I knew how those parents felt,” she explained. “Those parents still have to live a life of grief. It sends me into a state of anxiety and I worry about my children.”

Her lawyer, Adam King, asked directly whether she ever wanted anyone to act on the post — to torch asylum hotels or harm politicians. She replied: “Absolutely not.” She said she deleted the post just over three hours later, after calming down and realising how wrong it was. “It wasn’t the right thing to say, it wasn’t what I wanted to happen.”

The court also heard how Connolly had lost her son 14 years ago, and that the murders of the girls in Southport had triggered painful memories and emotional distress. She later apologised publicly on X, saying she regretted what she wrote and that it was wrong “in every way”.

Outside court, her husband, Ray Connolly, who lost his seat as a Tory councillor last May, said he was disappointed there was no decision yet. “It’s 279 days now my daughter’s been without her mother,” he said. “I’m hoping that within a week she’ll be home and this will come to a positive conclusion.”

Connolly told the judges she hadn’t fully understood what pleading guilty meant at the time — that it meant she was admitting she intended to stir up violence. “There had been no violence,” she said. “It was never my intention to cause any.”

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