The wife of a Conservative local councillor has been found guilty of posting messages on social media calling for an attack on a hotel hosting asylum seekers.
Lucy Connolly, wife of West Northamptonshire Conservative MP Raymond Connolly, was sentenced to 31 months in prison at Birmingham Crown Court for inciting racial hatred against X on the day of the attack in Southport.
Lucy Connolly (41), a nursery worker, called on X (formerly Twitter) to set fire to a hotel hosting migrants in Southport following the murder of three girls.
The messages read: “Mass deportation now, burn down all the f**king hotels full of bastards as far as I’m concerned… if that makes me a racist then so be it.
Ms Connolly, who is that?” Ms Connolly, who is married to Raymond Connolly and sits on West Northamptonshire Council, has been in custody since her initial hearing on August 10.
Ms Connolly advertised her childcare services on online platform Childcare.co.uk, but the site took action to suspend her as an advertiser after becoming aware of her “highly inappropriate tweets”.
After pleading guilty, the husband said his wife understood what she had done and was sorry.
Mr Connolly said: “I hope she learns from this and moves on with her life.”
It was part of a series of tough sentences handed down by authorities in the wake of riots that have rocked the country following the senseless murder of three children from Southport.
Following the murder, false information was spread online claiming that illegal immigrants were responsible. These claims were later found to be false.
