Tory councillor’s wife remanded in custody over hate charges

[pellinore]

I'll admit there have been a few occasions when I have sent some texts I have regretted, but I've never been banged up over them.

A Tory councillor’s wife has been remanded in custody on charges of stirring up racial hatred as dozens of anti-racist rallies take place across the country.

Lucy Connolly, 41, was refused bail and will appear at Northampton Crown Court on Monday after she was charged with publishing written material to stir up racial hatred.

She is accused of encouraging social media users to “set fire to all the ******* hotels full of the b*******” as far-right violence swept the country last week.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/tory-councillor-lucy-connolly-racial-hatred-b2594392.html

[pellinore]

She could be facing 18 months.

Posted on X, fomerly Twitter, she wrote: “set fire to all the ******* hotels full of the b*******” on the day of a stabbing in Southport that left three young children dead.

District Judge Rahim Allen-Khimani told Ms Connolly and the court the matter was “too serious for this court to deal with”.

Tory councillor’s wife Lucy Connolly could face 18 months on racial hatred charges (msn.com)

Edited August 12 by pellinore

[Still Waters]

Lucy Connolly, the wife of a Tory councillor, has pleaded guilty to publishing a social media post stirring up racial hatred against asylum seekers

Connolly, a 41-year-old childminder from Northampton, called for asylum seekers' hotels to be set on fire and wrote: "If that makes me racist, so be it"

She will be sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on 17 October - the judge said it's "likely to be a substantial custodial sentence"

Speaking outside court, Connolly's husband said: "She knows that she overstepped the mark and there is consequences for it"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c5y8x2nnwx7t

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/sep/02/childminder-lucy-connolly-married-to-tory-councillor-pleads-guilty-to-stirring-up-racial-hatred-hotels-asylum-seekers

[pellinore]

For the life of me, I don't know what the protests were about. I actually agree with the rioters who said they just joined in for a lark without thinking of the consequences.

The BLM protestors, the pro-Palestinian protesters, are protesting about something they want to stop - stop killing civilians in Gaza, stop killing Black people.

But the Southport protestors were reacting against something they wanted and achieved- they wanted to leave Europe, they wanted to give the whole world access to the UK, and they welcome the CPTTP where we will concentrate trade the other side of the world. Non-European immigration has rocketed since the UK 'did Brexit', which is exactly what they wanted- but now they are claiming they are not happy.

 

[itsnotoutthere]

https://unherd.com/newsroom/should-a-childminder-really-go-to-prison-over-tweets/

[pellinore]

7 hours ago, itsnotoutthere said:

https://unherd.com/newsroom/should-a-childminder-really-go-to-prison-over-tweets/

The trials are not over Tweets. Anyone can Tweet. It is not illegal.

What is illegal is inciting public disorder and violence. That is illegal and anti-democratic and anyone with a functioning braincell should know that.

It is like the argument that PM Johnson was 'punished for eating birthday cake'. That wasn't the point. The point was the party was being held when it was prohibited.

 

[itsnotoutthere]

11 hours ago, pellinore said:

The trials are not over Tweets. Anyone can Tweet. It is not illegal.

What is illegal is inciting public disorder and violence. That is illegal and anti-democratic and anyone with a functioning braincell should know that.

It is like the argument that PM Johnson was 'punished for eating birthday cake'. That wasn't the point. The point was the party was being held when it was prohibited.

 

You miss the point of the article ..again. :-

 "But there is no evidence that Connolly intended to carry out her threat, which she quickly deleted and apologised for.

That certainly wasn’t the case when a man called Muhammad Hassan, who had previously abused three Asian women because he didn’t like how they were dressed, appeared in court last week. Hassan was charged with assaulting the women when they stopped for petrol at a service station in Bradford. He berated them as “prostitutes”, seizing the driver’s head and slamming it into the dashboard. Then he grabbed the second woman and punched her in the head, before hitting the third woman as well."

"She has a tragic history, losing a son at the age of 19 months after a series of medical errors. It’s hard to see what would be achieved by separating her from her surviving children, when non-custodial options are available. If she is sent to prison, while a man caught on CCTV physically attacking three women walks free, the “two-tier” justice system jibe will really deserve to stick."

(I thought the new government were getting tough on 'mysogyny'  ...apparently not.)

Edited September 4 by itsnotoutthere

[pellinore]

29 minutes ago, itsnotoutthere said:

 "But there is no evidence that Connolly intended to carry out her threat, which she quickly deleted and apologised for.

No, I don't for a second imagine she was going to go out with a can of petrol and a box of matches herself.

[pellinore]

32 minutes ago, itsnotoutthere said:

That certainly wasn’t the case when a man called Muhammad Hassan, who had previously abused three Asian women because he didn’t like how they were dressed, appeared in court last week. Hassan was charged with assaulting the women when they stopped for petrol at a service station in Bradford.

You voted to change the UK immigration from one which favoured Europeans to one which favours the rest of the world instead. Now the UK is getting 4x the levels of immigration it used to have, but from India, Africa and Asia.

The new immigration system is operating exactly as it was intended to.

[itsnotoutthere]

7 minutes ago, pellinore said:

You voted to change the UK immigration from one which favoured Europeans to one which favours the rest of the world instead. Now the UK is getting 4x the levels of immigration it used to have, but from India, Africa and Asia.

The new immigration system is operating exactly as it was intended to.

Again you missed the point :-

 If she is sent to prison, while a man caught on CCTV physically attacking three women walks free, the “two-tier” justice system jibe will really deserve to stick."

[Setton]

1 hour ago, itsnotoutthere said:

Again you missed the point :-

 If she is sent to prison, while a man caught on CCTV physically attacking three women walks free, the “two-tier” justice system jibe will really deserve to stick."

I don't agree with Hassan being given a suspended sentence, based on what's in your article (assuming that is a full and accurate picture).

But there is a difference between an isolated assault and encouragement to mass violence and murder.

The scale of threat from the second is much greater.

Or do you think that Anjem Choudhary should be let off too? He never killed anyone, just incited and encouraged others to do so. And he'll probably spend the rest of his life in prison. Meanwhile a drunk driver kills someone and gets a suspended sentence.

[MrAnderson]

7 hours ago, itsnotoutthere said:

Again you missed the point :-

 If she is sent to prison, while a man caught on CCTV physically attacking three women walks free, the “two-tier” justice system jibe will really deserve to stick."

I am from the US but I watch the developments in the UK and elsewhere in the world. If this happens then there is something very wrong with your justice system. There cannot be a two-tier legal system as it will lead to injustice and possibly civil unrest.

[MrAnderson]

7 hours ago, pellinore said:

You voted to change the UK immigration from one which favoured Europeans to one which favours the rest of the world instead. Now the UK is getting 4x the levels of immigration it used to have, but from India, Africa and Asia.

The new immigration system is operating exactly as it was intended to.

Regardless of what they voted for the comment made by the poster is correct and simply you can't have a two-tier justice system which will have various and serious consequences in the future because ordinary people will eventually revolt against the government.

[itsnotoutthere]

7 hours ago, Setton said:

I don't agree with Hassan being given a suspended sentence, based on what's in your article (assuming that is a full and accurate picture).

But there is a difference between an isolated assault and encouragement to mass violence and murder.

The scale of threat from the second is much greater.

Or do you think that Anjem Choudhary should be let off too? He never killed anyone, just incited and encouraged others to do so. And he'll probably spend the rest of his life in prison. Meanwhile a drunk driver kills someone and gets a suspended sentence.

 

[Setton]

25 minutes ago, itsnotoutthere said:

 

Yeah I'm not going to watch a 12 minute video if you can't articulate your point for yourself.

[pellinore]

3 hours ago, MrAnderson said:

 simply you can't have a two-tier justice system which will have various and serious consequences in the future because ordinary people will eventually revolt against the government.

We have always had a two-tier justice system: wealthy people with influence get a fine, poor people get prison (sometimes for crimes they haven't committed).

 

[MrAnderson]

15 minutes ago, pellinore said:

We have always had a two-tier justice system: wealthy people with influence get a fine, poor people get prison (sometimes for crimes they haven't committed).

 

I don't object on this but do you want another two-tier legal system?