Tory councillor’s wife admits urging rioters to ‘set fire to all the migrant hotels’ in vile-mouthed social media rant
A TORY councillor’s wife has admitted urging rioters to set fire to migrant hotels in a vile-mouthed social media rant.
Lucy Connolly posted the sick comments on her X account just hours after three girls were knifed to death in Southport, Merseyside.
The 41-year-old childminder wrote: “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.”
She today pleaded guilty to publishing threatening or abusive material intending to stir up racial hatred.
Judge Adrienne Lucking KC told Connolly she’s likely to be sent to jail when she is sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on October 17.
Connolly shared call to arms following the deaths of Bebe King, six, nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, in Southport on July 29.
Posts wrongly claimed suspect Axel Rudakubana was a Muslim asylum seeker when he was actually born in Cardiff and raised Christian.
Riots erupted across the country as thugs clashed with police and targeted hotels housing asylum seekers.
Connolly is married to Raymond Connolly, who is Conservative vice chair of the committee on adult social care at West Northamptonshire Council.
He previously defended his wife, telling the BBC she made one “stupid, spur of the moment tweet out of frustration and quickly deleted it”.
He continued: “She’s a good person and she’s not racist.
“She’s got Somalian and Bangladeshi kids she looks after and she loves them like they’re her own.”
Connolly also tried to make a U-turn on her vile comments – claiming she was acting on “false and malicious” information.
But the Crown Prosecution Service said she told police she did not like immigrants in her custody interview.
Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS special crime and counter terrorism unit, said: “During police interview Lucy Connolly stated she had strong views on immigration, told officers she did not like immigrants and claimed that children were not safe from them.
“It is not an offence to have strong or differing political views, but it is an offence to incite racial hatred – and that is what Connolly has admitted doing.
“The prosecution case included evidence which showed that racist tweets were sent out from Mrs Connolly’s X account both in the weeks and months before the Southport attacks – as well as in the days after.
“Connolly wrongly thought that she could escape justice by hiding behind a screen, but today she has pleaded guilty and admitted her crime. She will now face the consequences of her actions.”
Connolly has been remanded into custody ahead of sentencing.