Lucy Connolly, a former Conservative councillor’s wife who was jailed over her tweets in the aftermath of the Southport murders, is set to be freed from jail within weeks, The Standard can reveal.
Sources said the mother-of-two is due to be released from HMP Peterborough next month subject to conditions.
She was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison last October for publishing written material that incited racial hatred.
Connolly, 42, was ordered to serve 40 per cent of her sentence in jail before being released on licence.
One of Connolly’s friends recently shared that she will be “with a glass of Whispering Angel in-hand' this time in August.
Connolly — whose husband Raymond served on West Northamptonshire Council until being defeated in May’s local elections — posted her expletive-ridden post on the day that Bebe King, six, Alice Aguiar, nine, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were murdered by Axel Rudakubana, 18, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.
She posted on July 29: “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 was viewed more than 300,000 times in three and a half hours on X, formerly known as Twitter, before Connolly deleted it.
The Southport murders sparked nationwide unrest, with Connolly among several people jailed as a result. She was remanded in custody after her first court appearance on August 10, 2024.
During her trial at Birmingham Crown Court, it was revealed that Connolly, of Parkfield Avenue in Northampton, sent a WhatsApp message on August 5 joking that her post to her 10,000 followers had "bitten me on the arse, lol".
The court also heard that Connolly, who had no previous convictions, sent another tweet commenting on a sword attack, which read: "I bet my house it was one of these boat invaders."
Judge Melbourne Inman KC said her 31-month prison sentence was intended to "punish and deter" Connolly, who pleaded guilty at the time.
Critics argued that Connolly’s punishment did not fit the crime. Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the former childminder was a victim of “a politicised two-tier justice system”.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Liz Truss tore into the decision, saying “the severity of her sentence is completely unjustifiable”.
But in May, Connolly lost an appeal against her sentence at the Court of Appeal, with Lord Justice Holroyde rejecting the suggestion it was “manifestly excessive”.
Connolly said she “never” intended to incite violence and failed to realise that pleading guilty would mean she accepted she had.
The case also sparked foreign interest with a White House spokesman saying in May it was “monitoring” Connolly's case.
Last month, Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice claimed Connolly had been “mistreated” in jail and “manhandled without provocation” following his meeting with her in June.
The Ministry of Justice, that doesn’t comment on individual cases, was approached for comment.
