Northampton childminder jailed over racist tweet appears at court of appeal – husband speaks out
A former Northampton childminder, who was jailed for a racist Tweet, appeared at the court of appeal, but is still awaiting a decision.
Lucy Connolly, of Parkfield Avenue, Delapre, appeared at the Royal Courts of Justice on Thursday (May 15) to appeal her 31-month prison sentence, which was handed to her in October last year, following a racist post on X in the wake of the Southport murders in July 2024.
The 42-year-old gave evidence in court, but the hearing was adjourned with no decision made. A written judgment will be sent out at a later date.
Prior to Connolly appearing in court, her husband – former West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) Conservative councillor, Raymond Connolly – joined the Free Speech Union in a protest outside the Central London court. They held a banner that said: “Police our streets not out Tweets”. Raymond lost his seat on WNC during the local elections earlier this month. He is, however, now a councillor for the Briar Hill ward on Northampton Town Council.
Speaking to the Chronicle and Echo, Raymond says he has not been told when he might expect the written judgement.
Asked if the delayed outcome was a blow, he said: “No, not really. I'd expected it because all Lucy's decisions have always been delayed.”
Speaking about the support he received during the protest, Raymond said: "I have a lot of support. There were people there yesterday from all over, someone had come from Los Angeles. It was good."
On his wife’s well-being, he said: “Lucy's fine. Lucy's very resilient, at the end of the day, Lucy's been through hell and back when we lost our son, but this is nothing. I'm fine, my problem is my daughter, she's the only one who's suffering here.”
He went on to say he believes his wife’s sentence was disproportionate. He said: "I think that the sentence was disproportionate. I think she's being made an example of. If I was a judge and I looked at it and I'd look at Lucy's history and I'd look at the exemplary references Lucy received from Nigerians, Bangladeshis, from people within the community where they were over-complementary to Lucy. I would probably give her community service. I don't know, but I just think it was over disproportionate of a sentence, that's all."
He added: “All I know is that Lucy's doing her best. She knows the odds are stacked against her and we'll see.”
Online, Connolly has also had support from a number of famous faces saying she should be freed, including Dan Wootton and Liz Truss.
An online fundraiser has also been started which has been called ‘Help Lucy Connolly Rebuild Her Shattered Life’.
It is not known when the fundraiser was first set up, but at the time of writing (Friday, May 16), £18,000 has been raised out of a £30,000 target. Yesterday, the total was around £5,000.
Lucy Connolly was charged with one count of publishing material intending to stir up racial hatred after a now-deleted Tweet, which called for mass deportation and suggested setting fire to hotels housing immigrants, in response to misinformation shared following the murder of three girls in Southport.
The charge came in August 2024, before she pleaded guilty in September. Connolly was then sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court – where she appeared via video link from HMP Peterborough – on October 17, 2024.
Connolly’s post was also shared by Northampton father-of-three Tyler Kay, who was sentenced in August 2024 to 38 months after admitting to publishing material intended to stir up racial hatred.