Lucy Connolly appeal judge cut sentence of paedophile Labour peer
One of the judges who refused Lucy Connolly's appeal previously reduced the sentence of a former Labour peer convicted of child sex offences.
Connolly, a childminder who is married to a Conservative councillor, received a 31-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to inciting racial hatred with a tweet posted in the wake of the Southport murders.
This week, Lord Justice Holroyde, alongside Mr Justice Goss and Mr Justice Sheldon, rejected her bid to have her sentence reduced at the Court of Appeal.
The court found that the judge in Connolly's case had followed the sentencing guidelines correctly, she was aware of what those guidelines were when she pleaded guilty, and her sentence had not been manifestly excessive.
Previously, Lord Justice Holroyde presided over the appeal hearing of Lord Ahmed of Rotherham, a former Labour peer, after he was convicted of trying to rape a young girl and sexually assaulting a boy under nine in the 1970s.
He was jailed for five years and six months at Sheffield Crown Court in February 2022.
But in March 2023, his sentence was reduced to two years and six months by Lord Justice Holroyde, Lord Burnett, the then Lord Chief Justice, and Lord Justice William Davis after they concluded the sentencing judge had not followed the sentencing guidelines.
The three concluded that the trial judge in Lord Ahmed's case 'fell into error' when passing sentence.
They said the fact that Lord Ahmed was a child when he committed the offences had to be taken into account.
During his original trial, the court heard he had attempted to rape a girl on two occasions when he was aged about 16 or 17 and she was much younger.
The attack on the boy also happened during the same period. Both incidents took place in Rotherham.
Lord Ahmed was found guilty of two counts of attempted rape against the girl and a serious sexual assault against the boy.
He had originally been given two years for each of the attempted rapes, to run concurrently, with a further three years and six months for assaulting the boy.
The judges said had he been sentenced shortly after the assault on the boy, he would have been 14 and a child with no previous convictions.
They concluded a custodial sentence of six months was a 'suitable penalty'. They did not reduce the sentence imposed in relation to the attempted rapes.
Connolly, 42, was jailed after she posted a message on social media platform X hours after Axel Rudakubana went on a knife rampage at a Taylor-Swift themed event in Southport, murdering three little girls.
She posted: 'Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f---ing hotels full of the b------s for all I care, while you're at it, take the treacherous government politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what these [Southport] families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist, so be it.'
Connolly, who lost her son Harry when he was 19 months old and cares for her sick husband, deleted the post less than four hours later – but not before it had been viewed 310,000 times.
She later posted another message condemning the riots, writing: 'FS, I get they're angry. I'm f---ing raging, however, this is playing right into their hands. I do not want civil unrest on our streets. Tommy Robinson is not going to say but this is not going to get anyone anywhere. Protests yes but not riots.'
She was arrested on Aug 6 following widespread riots across the country.
The Court of Appeal judges refused to reduce her sentence this week, saying the tweet represented 'an incitement to serious violence'.
They did not accept that the original 31-month sentence was 'manifestly excessive'.
They also said they did not accept the argument that the offending tweet had been 'no more than an expression of emotion'.
The ruling concluded: 'We of course have every sympathy with the applicant over the death of her son, and we can understand why she remains angry about the circumstances of his death.
'We can therefore accept that the shocking events in Southport had an impact on her which went beyond that felt by many others. But as the judge rightly said, she did not post a message of support and sympathy to the victims of the Southport attack and the bereaved.'
Since the ruling there has been a widespread backlash against the decision, with Sir Richard Dearlove, a former MI6 chief, becoming the latest high-profile figure to voice concerns.
Sir Richard said it was an 'extraordinary case' and he did not believe Connolly should still be in prison.
Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, has said the jailing of Connolly showed Britain was becoming 'a police state' under Sir Keir Starmer.
Sir Keir defended the sentence given to Connolly shortly after it emerged that her appeal had been rejected.
He said that while he was 'strongly in favour' of free speech, he was 'equally against incitement to violence against other people'.
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