Social media users are this week cheering on reports that a mother imprisoned for a post on X will soon be “freed.” Their celebrations seem premature.
Lucy Connolly was jailed for 31 months after authorities treated her post on the day of the horrific Southport knife attack—calling for “mass deportation now” and saying: “Set fire to all the f*****g [migrant] hotels full of the b******s for all I care”—as incitement. That’s despite the fact Connolly deleted the message less than four hours after pressing ‘send’ and stressed the next day that “violence is not the answer.”
Pointing to her upcoming release, The Mirrorclaimed on Thursday that Britain’s Court of Appeal has now “ruled Lucy Connolly, 41, had not intended the post to incite violence.” This is not at all clear from the Court’s website. Its most recent document on Connolly—as of midday on July 31st—is a rejected appeal from two months ago saying her sentence was not “manifestly excessive.”
Other papers have highlighted an X post by a friend of Connolly claiming she will be with “her family AT HOME” next month.
It appears this is actually a scheduled release (set for August 21st), not related to any recent (and potentially imagined) Court of Appeal ruling. According to The London Standard, Connolly will be released on licence after serving 40% of her term in jail, meaning her return home is subject to conditions before the sentence term comes to an end. That’s hardly the definition of “free.”
Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson—who has herself suffered at the hands of Conservative and Labour government devised ‘hate speech’ laws—also pointed to “understandable concern as to what tricks the Home Office may play to prevent ‘Starmer’s political prisoner’ from telling her story.”
It is worth noting too that British police are establishing new “elite squads” to monitor anti-migrant posts on social media.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
