How one woman's racist tweet sparked a free speech row

Lucy Connolly's 51-word online station successful the aftermath of the Southport killings led her to jailhouse and into the centre of a enactment implicit escaped speech.

For some, the 31-month jailhouse word imposed for inciting contention hatred was "tyrannical", portion 1 commentator said Connolly was a "hostage of the British state", and different that she was "clearly a governmental prisoner".

Court of Appeal judges, however, this week refused to trim her sentence.

Asked astir her lawsuit successful Parliament, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said sentencing was "a substance for the courts" and that portion helium was "strongly successful favour of escaped speech", helium was "equally against incitement to violence".

Rupert Lowe, the autarkic MP for Great Yarmouth, said the concern was "morally repugnant" and added: "This is not the Britain I privation to unrecorded in."

Others said her supporters wanted a "right to beryllium racist".

In July past year, prompted by a mendacious rumour that an amerciable migrant was liable for the murder of 3 girls astatine a creation store successful Southport, Connolly posted online calling for "mass deportation now", adding "set occurrence to each the... hotels [housing asylum seekers]... for each I care".

Connolly, past a 41-year-old Northampton childminder, added: "If that makes maine racist, truthful beryllium it."

At the clip she had astir 9,000 followers connected X. Her connection was reposted 940 times and viewed 310,000 times, earlier she deleted it 3 and a fractional hours later.

In October she was jailed aft admitting inciting radical hatred.

Three entreaty tribunal judges this week ruled the 31-month condemnation was not "manifestly excessive".

Stephen O'Grady, a ineligible serviceman with the Free Speech Union (FSU), said the condemnation seemed "rather steep successful proportionality to the offence".

His organisation has worked with Connolly's household since November and funded her appeal.

Mr O'Grady said Connolly "wasn't immoderate lager-fuelled hooligan connected the streets" and pointed to her being a parent of a 12-year-old daughter, who had besides mislaid a lad erstwhile helium was conscionable 19 months old.

He said determination was a "difference betwixt howling racist maltreatment astatine idiosyncratic successful the thoroughfare and throwing bricks astatine the police" and "sending tweets, which were possibly regrettable but wouldn't person the aforesaid contiguous effect".

Connolly's lawsuit was besides "emblematic of wider concerns" astir "increasing constabulary involvement successful people's online activity", Mr O'Grady said.

The FSU had received "a slew of queries" from radical who were "very unsure" astir "the limits of what they tin they tin accidental online", helium said, and who feared "the constabulary are going to travel knocking connected the door".

"There's an immense magnitude of constabulary overreach," helium added.

He cited the illustration of a retired peculiar constable detained aft challenging a pro-Palestine protagonist online, a lawsuit the FSU took on.

Responding to Mr O'Grady's claim, a National Police Chiefs' Council spokesperson said that Article 10 of the Human Rights Act "protects a person's close to clasp opinions and to explicit them freely" and that officers received grooming astir the act.

They added: "It remains imperative that officers and unit proceed to person grooming commensurate with the demands placed upon them."

After the entreaty was dismissed, Connolly's husband, Conservative municipality councillor Raymond Connolly, said she was "a bully idiosyncratic and not a racist" and had "paid a precise precocious terms for making a mistake".

Her section Labour MP, Northampton South's Mike Reader, said helium had "big sympathy" for Connolly and her daughter, but determination was nary justification for accusing the constabulary of "overreach".

He said: "I privation the constabulary to support america online and I privation the constabulary to support america connected the streets and they should beryllium doing it equally."

It was a "fallacy" and "misunderstanding of the world" if radical did not "believe that the online abstraction is arsenic unsafe for radical arsenic the streets," helium added.

"We're each attached to our phones; we're each influenced by what we see, and I deliberation it's close that the constabulary took enactment here."

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Melbourne Inman said Connolly's offence was "category A" - meaning "high culpability" - and that some the prosecution and her ain barrister agreed she "intended to incite superior violence".

For Reader, this showed "they weren't arguing this was a silly tweet and she should beryllium fto disconnected - her ain counsel agreed this was a superior issue".

At her appeal, Connolly claimed that portion she accepted she intended to disturbance up radical hatred, she ever denied trying to incite violence.

But Lord Justice Holroyde said in a judgement this week the grounds "clearly shows that she was good alert of what she was admitting".

Sentencing guidelines for the offence bespeak a starting constituent of 3 years' custody.

While the prosecution argued the offence was aggravated by its timing, "particularly delicate societal climate", the defence argued the tweet had been posted earlier immoderate unit had started, and that Connolly had "subsequently attempted to halt the unit aft it had erupted".

The judgement besides highlighted different online posts from Connolly that the judges said indicated her "view astir amerciable immigrants".

Four days earlier the Southport murders, she responded to a video shared by far-right activistic Tommy Robinson showing a achromatic antheral being tackled to the crushed for allegedly performing a enactment enactment successful public.

Connolly posted: "Somalian, I guess. Loads of them," followed by a vomiting emoji.

On 3 August, responding to an anti-racism protestation successful Manchester, she wrote: "I instrumentality it they volition each beryllium successful enactment to motion up to location an amerciable vessel invader then. Oh sorry, refugee.

"Maybe motion a waiver to accidental they don't caput if it's 1 of their household that gets attacked, butchered, raped etc, by unvetted criminals."

The FSU said she was apt to beryllium eligible for merchandise from August, aft serving 40% of her sentence.

Some, including Mr O'Grady, argued her jailhouse word was longer than punishments handed to criminals perceived to person committed "far worse" crimes.

Reform UK's Mark Arnull, the person of West Northamptonshire Council, said it was not for him "to walk remark connected sentences oregon so sermon idiosyncratic cases".

But helium added: "It's comparatively casual to recognize wherefore constituents successful West Northamptonshire question the proportionality of Lucy's condemnation erstwhile they spot offenders successful different high-profile and superior cases locomotion escaped and debar jail."

The contented for writer and activistic Shola Mos-Shogbamimu was that "those who person committed worse crimes" should "spend much clip successful jail, not little clip for Lucy Connolly".

Dr Mos-Shogbamimu added: "It's not 'freedom of code without accountability'. She didn't tweet thing that wounded someone's feelings; she tweeted saying idiosyncratic should die."

In her view, those making Connolly a "flag-bearer oregon champion" for escaped code were asking for "the close to beryllium racist".

Free code advocator Mr O'Grady said "no-one is arguing for an unfettered 'right' to incite radical hatred".

Connolly's lawsuit was astir "proportionality", helium added, and "the consciousness that online code is progressively being punished precise harshly compared to different offending... specified arsenic in-person convulsive disorder".