The wife of a Conservative councillor who was jailed for posting a racist rant about migrants on the day of the Southport murders has failed to appeal her sentence.
Lucy Connolly was jailed last October after admitting she wrote an X post which 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, which was deleted within hours, was written after three girls were stabbed at a Taylor Swift themed dance class on July 29 last year.
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 wrote the post on X in response to the murders – but she told the Court of Appeal in London last week she ‘never’ intended to incite violence.
She said she didn’t realise pleading guilty to a charge of inciting racial hatred would mean she accepted she had.
Today Lord Justice Holroyde, Mr Justice Goss and Mr Justice Sheldon dismissed Connolly’s appeal against her 31-month sentence at the Court of Appeal.
Connolly is married to Raymond Connolly, who had been a Conservative member of West Northamptonshire district council until he lost his seat in May. He is still a member of the town council.
She said she was ‘really angry’ after the Southport attacks, but hours after posting the rant on X realised it was not an acceptable thing to say, so deleted it.
Adam King, representing Connolly, asked if she had intended for anyone to set fire to asylum hotels or ‘murder any politicians’.
She replied: ‘Absolutely not.’
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Naeem Valli, for the prosecution, told the court the post was a reflection of her attitude towards immigrants.
He added: ‘At the time of creating the post, the applicant clearly intended the racial hatred would be stirred up and also intended to incite serious violence.’
Mr Valli asked Connolly if she believed the country was being ‘invaded’ by immigrants.
She replied: ‘I believe that we have a massive number of people in the country that are unchecked, coming into the country and I believe that is a national security risk.’
She added it would be ‘absolutely incorrect’ to say she did not want immigrants in the country.
Connolly, of Northampton, was arrested on August 6, by which point she had deleted her social media account, but officers seized her phone and found more racist messages.
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