Tory councillor’s wife, Lucy Connolly, jailed on racial hatred charges
As far-right violence swept the nation, the wife of a Tory councillor was placed under arrest on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.
Lucy Connolly, who is accused of sending tweets inciting violence on asylum seekers, was denied bail and is scheduled to appear at Northampton Crown Court.
When questioned by the Nottingham Magistrates' Court if she understood, Ms Connolly, who was sitting in police custody and was wearing a pink pinafore, replied "yes."
She wrote: "set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the b*******" on X, a former Twitter platform, the day after a stabbing in Southport claimed the lives of three small children.
She went on, "Mass deportation now, burn down all the f****** hotels that are full of b******** for me." I don't care if that makes me racist.
Ms. Connolly and the court were informed by District Judge Rahim Allen-Khimani that the case was “too serious for this court to deal with”.
Raymond Connolly, a Conservative councillor for West Northamptonshire, is the husband of the 41-year-old childminder.
The social media posts are purportedly written by her on the same day that three young children in Southport, Merseyside, died from stabbings while taking a dance lesson with a Taylor Swift theme.
False information about the suspect's identity began to circulate online shortly after the incident, with some blogs conjecturing that he was a Muslim immigrant who had arrived in the UK by boat in 2023.
The suspect was eventually identified by Merseyside Police as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, a resident of Cardiff, Wales, and the son of Rwandan parents.
However, once far-right rioting took hold of the nation, over 700 people were detained and 300 were accused of being involved in the violent disturbance.
A far-right group attempted to set fire to a Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, which was thought to be hosting asylum seekers.
There was also a great deal of violence in towns and cities like Liverpool, Newcastle, and Birmingham, where people were arrested for violent disorder, theft, and antisocial behaviour, among other charges.