Woman jailed for race hate post released from prison

A woman who was jailed for stirring up racial hatred in the aftermath of the Southport attack has been released from prison.

Lucy Connolly, 42, whose husband serves on Northampton Town Council, pleaded guilty in September after posting the expletive-ridden message on X the day three girls were stabbed in Southport in July 2024.

Connolly, from Northampton, called for "mass deportation now" and urged her followers on X to "set fire" to hotels housing asylum seekers.

She was released from HMP Peterborough earlier after she was handed a 31-month prison sentence in October at Birmingham Crown Court.

In October, Connolly was ordered to serve 40% of her sentence in prison before being released on licence.

The former childminder posted her tweet on X on 29 July.

On 6 August she was arrested, by which point she had deleted her social media account, but other messages were found by officers after they had seized her phone.

The post was viewed 310,000 times in the three-and-a-half hours before she deleted it.

Later in court she admitted to inciting racial hatred by publishing and distributing "threatening or abusive" written material on X.