Connolly, who is also the wife of a Tory councillor in the area, pleaded guilty last September to inciting racial hatred after calling for "mass deportation now" and urging her followers on X to "set fire" to hotels housing so-called asylum seekers. The post, viewed more than 300,000 times before she deleted it, was made the same day three young girls were fatally stabbed by the son of migrants.
She was sentenced in October at Birmingham Crown Court to 31 months in custody. Judge Melbourne Inman described her actions as "category A" offending with "high culpability," noting that Connolly "intended to incite serious violence." Both the prosecution and her own lawyer accepted that assessment.
Connolly was released after serving 40 percent of her sentence, just over a year, the standard automatic release point for her offense. The remainder of the sentence will be served on the equivalent of parole, under probation supervision.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch slammed the sentence, saying, "her punishment was harsher than the sentences handed down for bricks thrown at police or actual rioting." She added: "Protecting people from words should not be given greater weight in law than public safety. If the law does this, then the law itself is broken and it's time Parliament looked again at the Public Order Act."
Lord Young of Acton, founder of the Free Speech Union, called the case a "national scandal," saying Connolly had spent more than a year in prison "for a single tweet that she quickly deleted and apologized for."
Her husband, Raymond Connolly, who sits on Northampton Town Council, has defended her. He said she had "paid a very high price for making a mistake" and described her as "a good person and not a racist."
He added that she continued to grieve the loss of her son and had missed the children she once cared for. "Two boys came and said 'We are here to see our English mum' so those visits have been good for Lucy," he said.
He also said he had received "letters of support from Canada to Australia" during her imprisonment.
Connolly tried to appeal her sentence in May, but Court of Appeal judges upheld the original ruling. Sentencing guidelines set the starting point for such offenses at three years' custody.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer defended the decision when questioned in the Commons. "Sentencing is a matter for our courts, and I celebrate the fact that we have independent courts in this country," he said.
"I am strongly in favor of free speech," he said, "we've had free speech in this country for a very long time and we protect it fiercely. But I am equally against incitement to violence against other people. I will always support the action taken by our police and courts to keep our streets and people safe."
Connolly was arrested on August 6, 2024, more than a week after posting the message. By then she had already deleted her account, though investigators recovered additional messages from her phone.
