The wife of a former Tory councillor has said she “never” meant to incite violence when she called for hotels to be burned down.
Lucy Connolly appeared from HMP Drake Hall in Eccleshall in Staffordshire, where she is currently serving a 31-month sentence for an online rant in which she called asylum seekers “b******s”.
She is challenging the sentence, which she was given last October, at the Court of Appeal after admitting making the post on X.
Writing on the day of the Southport attacks, Connolly 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.”
It followed three girls being stabbed to death at a holiday club in Southport sparking unrest around the country.
Connolly told the three judges she never meant to incite violence, and that she later deleted the post.
Lord Justice Holroyde, Mr Justice Goss and Mr Justice Sheldon heard that when she initially wrote it on 29 July last year, she was “really angry, really upset” and “distressed that those children had died”.
She added she knew how the parents felt.
Connolly said: “Those parents still have to live a life of grief. It sends me into a state of anxiety and I worry about my children.”
The court heard Connolly’s own child died 14 years ago and that this had caused a resurgence of her anxiety.
Connolly’s lawyer, Adam King, asked her if she intended for anybody to set asylum hotels on fire or “murder any politicians”, to which she replied: “Absolutely not.”
A prison van believed to be carrying Lucy Connolly arriving at court last year. Pic: PA
When asked why she deleted the post three-and-a-half hours after putting it up, Connolly responded that she had “calmed [herself] down” and that she knew it “wasn’t an acceptable thing to say”.
She continued: “It wasn’t the right thing to say, it wasn’t what I wanted to happen.”
The court heard Connolly posted an apology on the same platform several days later, where she said she regretted her initial post and realised it was wrong in “every way”.
Connolly did not understand what she pleaded guilty to, court told
When asked why she has apologised, Connolly told the court that it was because she was “really upset” her husband had been brought into it, and she did not want his name being “dragged through the mud”.
Connolly then told the court that during discussions with her barrister at Birmingham Crown Court, she had not understood that by pleading guilty she was accepting she had intended to incite violence.
Raymond Connolly outside the Court of Appeal.
Pic: PA
She said: “When I wrote that Tweet, there had been no violence, and it was never my intention to cause any.”
Connolly was originally arrested several days later after the stabbings on 6 August, by which time she had deleted her social media account.
However, other racists remarks in messages were discovered by officers who seized her phone.
Raymond Connolly outside the Court of Appeal.
Pic: PA
The former childminder is married to Raymond Connolly, who was a Conservative Northamptonshire county councillor, but lost his seat in May. He remains on the town council.
The hearing continues and is expected to end on Thursday afternoon.
