Tory councillor's wife jailed for racist Southport tweet will be released from prison within WEEKS
'FREE IN WEEKS' Tory councillor's wife jailed for racist Southport tweet will be released from prison within WEEKS
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A CHILDMINDER jailed for calling for migrant hotels to be set on fire on the day of the Southport attack will be released in weeks.
Lucy Connolly, 41, was sent to prison for 31 months in October after being found guilty of inciting racial hatred.
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The tweet that got Lucy locked up
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Lucy is the wife of Tory councillor Raymond Connolly
Credit: PA
She will go free from HMP Peterborough in August having served 40 per cent of her term, The Sun understands.
Her tweet, which was viewed more than 300,000 times before she deleted it, said: '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.'
It had been prompted by false rumours that the suspect behind the murder of three girls at a dance class in Southport was an illegal immigrant.
Connolly, from Northampton, the wife of a former Tory councillor, lost an appeal to reduce her sentence in May.
Read more on Lucy Connolly
US PRESSURE White House 'monitoring' case of councillor's wife jailed for racist post
Nigel Farage has previously called for her release and called her jail term 'absolutely excessive'.
Speaking at an event in May he said: 'I want to make it absolutely clear: Lucy Connolly should not be in prison.
"While she should not have said what she said, understand there were millions of mothers at that moment in time after Southport feeling exactly the same way.'
And Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: 'People have received less time in jail — or no time — for actual physical and sexual assaults.'
Kemi Badenoch has called the punishment 'disproportionately severe'.
Sir Keir Starmer has defended the sentence, saying he would 'always support' the UK court system.
I couldn't breathe & felt I was dying after Southport killer knifed me in spine… I knew from his eyes he wanted to kill us
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