Northamptonshire childminder admits stirring up racial hatred against asylum seekers in online post
Matthew Hudson was at Northampton Crown Court when a councillor's wife pleaded guilty to intending to stir up racial hatred.
A childminder has pleaded guilty to intending to stir up racial hatred with a tweet calling for attacks on hotels housing asylum seekers.
Lucy Connolly, 41, who is married to West Northamptonshire councillor Raymond Connolly, in August posted on X, saying: "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 was on the day three young girls were killed in Southport - with online misinformation about the identity of the killer, including false claims he was an asylum seeker.
Connolly, of Parkfield Avenue, Northampton, admitted the charge at Nottingham Crown Court, appearing via video-link from HMP Peterborough on Monday.
She was warned by the judge the sentence the receives when she appears at Birmingham Crown Court on 17 October was "likely to be a substantial custodial sentence" and was remanded in custody.
Wearing a flower-patterned short-sleeved dress, Connolly spoke only to enter her plea and confirm that she could hear the judge during a hearing lasting seven minutes.
Her husband defended Connolly, saying she quickly regretted her actions, which were, "a moment of an upset housewife" seeing children killed.
Speaking outside court, Mr Connolly insisted "she is not that person".
He said: "She's probably the opposite of what she's having to admit to. But she knows she's overstepped the mark and there's consequences for it."
He added: "She took it off after a couple of hours because she realised - obviously with the internet, there was so much misinformation, there were many accusations, different names coming up [of the Southport killer] - and she realised she'd made a mistake."
Mr Connolly added: "Because we lost our own son, any children who get harmed or anything, she will kick off."
He said the court case has been "quite traumatic" for his wife and their children.
Raymond Connolly defends his wife, insisting 'she's the opposite of what she's having to admit to'
The couple lost their 19-month-old son Harry in 2011. They previously spoke to ITV News Anglia about NHS failures, when the toddler died of dehydration and kidney failure after being sent home twice from Northampton General Hospital.
Last month, Mrs Connolly apologised for her comments, which she said had been based on "false and malicious" information.
She wrote: "In a moment of outrage and emotion, I posted words that I realise were wrong in every way.
"I am someone who cares enormously about children, and the similarity between those beautiful children who were so brutally attacked and my own daughter overwhelmed me with horror but I should not have expressed that horror in the way that I did.
"This has been a valuable lesson for me, in realising how wrong and inaccurate things appearing on social media can be, and I will never ever react in this way again."
Adjourning Connolly’s case for sentence at Birmingham Crown Court, Judge Adrienne Lucking KC told her the ordering of pre-sentence reports was no indication of the likely sentence.
The judge said the case was being transferred to Birmingham to avoid any potential appearance of bias given Connolly’s husband held a political post in the local area.
Judge Lucking told Connolly: “Sentencing will entirely be a matter for the judge on the next occasion but it’s likely to be a substantial custodial sentence.
“In the meantime, you are remanded in custody.”
In August, Tyler Kay, a father-of-three, was jailed for 38 months for stirring up racial hatred, also using social media to call for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set alight.
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