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BreakingNews.ie
19 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
British woman set to be released from prison following jail term for hate tweet
Lucy Connolly, who was jailed for inciting racial hatred in the aftermath of the Southport terror attack in England, is reportedly set to be released from prison. Connolly, the wife of Conservative councillor Raymond Connolly, will be released on Thursday after being sentenced last year to 31 months in custody, the Telegraph reported. Advertisement She had posted on X on the day of the murder of three children by Axel Rudakubana in Southport: 'Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the bastards for all I care… if that makes me racist so be it.' She pleaded guilty to inciting racial hatred by publishing and distributing 'threatening or abusive' written material on X and was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court in October last year. Her sentence has been criticised as being too harsh, but British prime minister Keir Starmer defended it earlier this year. Asked in May whether her imprisonment was an 'efficient or fair use' of prison, Mr Starmer said: 'Sentencing is a matter for our courts, and I celebrate the fact that we have independent courts in this country. Advertisement 'I am strongly in favour of free speech, 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's post was viewed 310,000 times in three-and-a-half hours before she deleted it.
The Sun
19 minutes ago
- The Sun
Inside Creamfields' drug underbelly as ravers smuggle in MDMA-filled Kinder Eggs & dealers shout like market traders
LUCY GEORGE was three weeks away from starting her dream job as a flight attendant with Virgin Atlantic when she headed to Creamfields dance festival. The 25-year-old from Neath, Wales, was looking forward to a weekend of fun with pals before embarking on her globetrotting career - but four days after collapsing at the event, she would be dead. 13 13 13 It was August 26, 2022, and Lucy's family says she had her whole life ahead of her, but within hours of arriving at the festival in Daresbury, Cheshire, she was in a critical condition and rushed to Warrington Hospital. Lucy, who was described as a non-drug taker at the subsequent inquest into her death, had taken just half an ecstasy tablet, sniffed nitrous oxide gas and drank vodka and would later die from multiple organ failure as a result. Handing down a verdict of misadventure after 'high levels of MDMA were found in her system', the coroner concluded that Lucy had taken drugs but 'didn't expect the outcome.' At the time of the inquest, Lucy's heartbroken mum, Helen George, said: "As a family now we are absolutely devastated because she's not here. 25 is no age to lose her life. If she has taken what she has taken, it was done in the moment. 'Lucy was not a drug addict. She was a beautiful girl, she was fun-loving, very hard-working…These youngsters need to realise that drugs are serious. It's not something that you should just take. Lucy has paid the ultimate price by losing her life." As well as drugs, the festival has seen its fair share of violence and sexual assaults, with one festival goer being left scarred for life after having a piece of cheek ripped off in a bloody attack. Creamfields, which is one of the world's most renowned electronic dance festivals, launched for the first time in 1998 in Winchester, Hampshire and has grown in popularity - known as a festival for first timers and those celebrating exam results at the end of the summer. Its line-up includes some of the best artists and DJs, such as Swedish House Mafia, Calvin Harris, David Guetta and Fatboy Slim - and attracts a young crowd similar to Boardmasters in Cornwall. As 80,000 revellers head to Creamfields this Bank Holiday weekend for what's billed as the UK's biggest dance music festival, Helen's words of warning reverberate. 'People were collapsing all over the campsite' On the same day Lucy collapsed, several drug dealers were caught attempting to smuggle large consignments of narcotics into the event, but 2022 was not an anomaly. The annual festival has struggled to stamp out rampant drug use – so much so that at later trials of drug dealers caught there, a judge revealed that three detectives are employed full-time to deal with the problem. At Lucy's inquest, in 2022, her friend Daniel Humphries, explained: "When we were at Creamfields, people were selling drugs around the tents. They were easy to get hold of." One festival goer wrote about their experiences on Reddit and called the 'lack' of security 'frightening', while explaining: 'Checks at the entrance were very random. Drug dealers casually walking around SHOUTING what drugs they have for sale.' Worryingly, the writer claimed: 'This year was by far the worst I have seen for drug dealers. Over five visits it has gradually got worse in terms of security and safety and to me this seems like a ticking time bomb.' One Tripadvisor reviewer, Zoe L, wrote about her experience in 2021, revealing, 'When we arrived at Creamfields, we went through the laziest bag check I've ever experienced. Just a simple pat down of the bags and 'have you got any drugs?'. 'I can appreciate it is very difficult to control drugs coming into a festival, but I feel due to the poor bag checks that it was rife. People were collapsing all over the campsite. People were openly handing out and taking drugs publicly without consequence in full view of staff.' One former festival-goer The Sun spoke to who attended Creamfields for several years in the early 2000s and wished to remain anonymous, said the festival has always maintained a reputation as a place where drugs were easy to acquire. 'It was always popular with clubbers and is synonymous with MDMA, ketamine and cocaine,' she said. 13 It was the high levels of the drug MDMA that would take Lucy's young life, and before that, the life of 19-year-old Joshua Gibson in 2019. According to reports, Lucy began acting strangely at around 8.20pm. Her friends said they tried to get help as she fell unconscious, but claimed that medics were "too busy" to assist them. The on-site hospital's ambulance control team were alerted to her condition at around 9.35pm before paramedics attended, and she was stretchered into the medical tent at 9.45pm. Lucy was struggling to breathe and went into cardiac arrest as doctors prepared a ventilation tube. She was resuscitated and taken by ambulance to Warrington Hospital's ICU. 13 Helen said: "Initially, the hospital was positive and keeping our spirits up, but as the day went on it wasn't good news, and by the Monday there was nothing more they could do." Lucy sadly died on Tuesday, August 30 with Coroner, Jacqueline Devonish, concluded that she'd "only took drugs because she happened to be at the festival" and that even if Lucy had received medical attention sooner, "it was unlikely that her life could have been saved due to the high levels of MDMA in her system". In the same year, police seized almost £90,000 worth of drugs during the four-day event, while 102 people were arrested between 2022 and 2024, 86 of those being for drug-related offences, according to an FOI data obtained by Get Licensed, a training platform that works to make UK festivals safer. Shockingly, the festival has the second-highest arrest rate in the UK. As Lucy was fighting for her life, pushers Andrew Rankin and James Jones, both from Dundee, were attempting to smuggle a cache of narcotics into the venue in a crate of cider. They were caught with 514 tablets of MDMA valued at £5,140 and 197 wraps of ketamine, valued at more than £8,000. Both were later jailed for three years after admitting two charges of possessing class A and class B drugs with intent to supply. On the same day, London pastry chef Ana Catarina Nogueria De Melo, 23, was also arrested trying to smuggle MDMA, Mcat and Ketamine into the festival. She was jailed for two and a half years after she pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply. Also in 2022, Erin Hobdell, of Glasgow, 18 at the time, and Kira McNicol, of Prestwick, 21 at the time, were caught attempting to take class A drugs worth up to £6,720 into the festival. 13 During their Chester Crown Court trial in November 2024, Judge Steve Everett revealed that three detectives worked full-time on Creamfields cases. 'Two people to my knowledge in the last eight years have died taking drugs at Creamfields,' he said, referring to Lucy George and Joshua Gibson, 19, who died in August 2019 after attending Creamfields, where he took three ecstasy tablets, which he smuggled past security checks at the entrance gate. His inquest heard that he bought ketamine inside the venue and later died of multiple organ failure after suffering three cardiac arrests. Chester Crown Court is kept busy with Creamfields cases. At another November 2024 drugs trial relating to the festival, the same judge exclaimed: 'There is a huge problem with drugs in Creamfields.' In that case, 20-year-old Joseph Ernest from London was arrested at the festival with £2,200 of ketamine hidden inside his body. He was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, suspended for 18 months. An 18-year-old's drug haul into Creamfields, 2023 Luckily for Jasmine, the judge noticed her genuine remorse and gave her a community sentence instead of jail time. In August 2023 aged only 18 and having just completed her A Levels, Jasmine Mattis was caught trying to get into Creamfields with a stash of Ecstasy, cocaine, LSD, ketamine and cannabis wrapped up in a coat and large bag. When confronted, she initially claimed the drugs were not hers, talked about ''needing the money'' - then, after asking to go to the toilet, appeared to try and run away. She was subsequently arrested. At Chester Crown Court, Jasmine, now 20, of South Norwood, Croydon, faced up to seven years in jail under sentencing guidelines after she admitted five charges of possessing drugs with intent to supply. She was sentenced to a two-year community order with requirements that she complete 200 hours of unpaid work and 10 rehabilitation activity days. Full list of what Jasmine tried to smuggle into the festival: 42 bags of ketamine 192 MDMA tablets 22 bags of MDMA powder 13 bags containing a mixture of MDMA, cocaine, and ketamine 4 doses of LSD 3 cannabis cigarettes 1g bag of cocaine at 77% purity In sentencing Jasmine, Judge Steven Everett said, 'Class A ecstasy is a killer. Cocaine is a killer, and when those who sniff it in its purest form, their noses cave in and do goodness knows what else to their insides. ''Undoubtedly, LSD has a significant effect psychologically; it is well documented that cannabis causes significant mental health issues, and there is evidence that ketamine causes bladder problems. "You were going to take those drugs in and make money out of those people and create that risk.' In May this year, 35-year-old mother of four Sian Bullock from Thornton Cleverley, Lancashire, was jailed for three years at Chester Crown Court after she was caught smuggling drugs into the event in August 2023. She admitted hiding two kinder egg containers in her vagina, which contained 64 MDMA tablets. Following Bullock's sentencing, Police Constable Lisa Green pointed out that there are 'amnesty bins' at the entrances where people can dump their drugs. She said: 'Every year, we and the Creamfields events and security teams do our utmost to ensure that everyone attending the festival can have a safe and enjoyable time, and for the most part, festival-goers have respected the laws.' A statement on the Creamfields website says: 'Cheshire police urge you not to risk bringing any illegal or unknown substances to the event. If you are found to be in possession of controlled drugs, new psychoactive substances or weapons, you are liable to prosecution.' 'I've never seen so much blood' While drug use inside the venue has been a huge problem for Creamfields' organisers, there have also been several vicious attacks there in recent years. On the online forum festivals, contributor Dom Ford wrote of his experience in 2020, claiming he was awoken at 4am by a group of men shouting: 'I've got a knife, who wants cutting' and 'give us your wallet and all your money'. He says a friend confronted the men and was punched and hit over the head several times with a mallet. He wrote: 'I've never seen so much blood in one place, all over the tent, covered his face in blood along with the scars, broken nose black eyes and a 6cm long, 2cm deep gash reaching his skull in the top of his head." In 2018 a reveller's throat was slashed by a knife-wielding maniac at the festival. Louis Maddock, then 25 from Runcorn, was subsequently jailed for seven and a half years for the attack. 13 And in 2017, horrific photos emerged of Essex window fitter Jimmy Leggett, 21 at the time, who had a chunk of his cheek ripped out in a brutal attack while attending Creamfields. In a Facebook post, Jimmy's twin brother Max said the family was relieved the 21-year-old was alive after the terrifying incident, but he said Jimmy's face was scarred for life. Sexual assaults have also been reported In April this year, Gergel Ludanyi, 35, from Southampton, was jailed for eight years at Chester Crown Court after being found guilty of sexual assault by penetration, and two counts of sexual assault by touching. During his trial, the court heard how, in August 2022, Ludanyi, who had been working on the fairground at the festival, was seen sexually assaulting his victim while she lay unconscious on the ground. In 2019, Bando Ysihara, then 19, from London, was jailed for eight years for raping a woman who was alone in her tent at the festival in 2018. The victim, in her 20s, had never met Ysihara before. Her harrowing 999 call was played to the Chester Crown Court at the trail. On its website, Creamfields organisers Rockstar Energy Drinks, says: 'We operate a zero-tolerance policy towards any kind of sexual assault or harassment.' As the weekend approaches, thousands of ravers will be gearing up for four days of music, dancing and hedonism. Most will have a weekend to remember. But for some, the carefree fun may turn into a nightmare. The Sun approached the organisers of Creamfields for comment.
The Sun
19 minutes ago
- The Sun
Brit gamer watches in horror as pal 1,000miles away in Finland is stabbed to death by stranger as they played online
A BRIT gamer watched in horror as his online friend was stabbed to death by a stranger in her home in Finland, according police. The unidentified man had been playing online with his friend, a 32-year-old Finnish woman, for around ten hours when he heard a window being smashed in. 2 2 The helpless Brit desperately asked the woman if she had locked her door - and later heard the murderer speak to the victim in Finnish, he told police. Neighbours in the southeastern Finnish town of Puumala reported hearing the woman scream, according to police docs seen by local media. The Brit was powerless to intervene in the horror 1,000 miles away, but sent an email to the town's police at 5am local time on April 23. is your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see video. Like us on Facebook at and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSun.
