For hurty words.
A childminder who is married to a Conservative councillor is facing a “substantial” prison sentence after she admitted stirring up racial hatred with an inflammatory social media post.
What did she say?
Lucy Connolly tweeted about hotels housing asylum seekers on the same day three girls were fatally stabbed at a dance class in Southport. She said on X: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care … If that makes me racist, so be it.”
That’s it? Any rational person will see this for what it is – hyperbole. It’s no different to someone saying ‘I’ll kill you.’ It is not even close to incitement and no one with a functioning brain cell would come to the conclusion that it is.
At a hearing on Monday, Connolly, 41, of Northampton, pleaded guilty to publishing threatening or abusive material intending to stir up racial hatred. She is due to be sentenced next month, with a judge warning her she faces a “substantial” custodial sentence.
Fucking disgrace.
“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”
Have I or have I not done anything different here? I don’t suppose they will be exhuming William Shakespeare any time soon, but what she said was no worse than this. It was words, nothing more. We are now firmly in an authoritarian police state. A substantial custodial sentence for hurty words is the kind of thing we thought was confined to the old Soviet Union, but it looks as if the ghost of that monstrosity is alive and well in modern Britain.
The ptb think they’re making examples to deter others but all l see are martyrs.
I also see an example of why voters are turning to populist and/or right wing parties across the whole of the West.
If you are going to be awarded a substantial custodial sentence despite pleading guilty then you might as well plead ‘not guilty’ and have your day in court.
When will Wes Streeting be prosecuted for threatening to push people under the train?
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1628883/wes-streeting-abusive-tweets-labour-leadership-apologise-update
Covid showed how easy it was to make a large part of the population do the bidding of the authorities.
So the latter are emboldened further.
Did the prosecution produce anyone stirred to hatred by her post? Or did they not have to, since she admitted it?
I’m sure an aggravating factor is her being married to a – ickyy – Tory councillor.
I see the Guardian has stopped allowing comments on pretty much every non-sport article. I suppose they don’t want to be exposed to the thoughts of us far-right racist bigots.
Why have so many plead guilty?
At the outset, it might have been with a misguided belief that you were going to get a lighter sentence.
Now it’s apparent that you’ll get an exemplary sentence, you might as well go to crown court rather than be dealt with at magistrates.
That’s what I don’t understand. It would be hard to defend this one under the law as it stands, to be fair, but there have been plenty of others where you have to squint really hard to discern any deliberate intent. Some of them don’t even appear particularly “threatening or abusive”, for that matter. I’m sure a decent argument could have been put together for quite a few.
You have to wonder who’s advising them.
Yes there shouldn’t be laws against hurty words. However, it was an extremely stupid thing to do putting a rant like that on social media where the enemies of freedom can read it.
Go to trial and they’ll make sure you do the same time on remand. Pretty sure that is thet hreat they use. Nobody will get bailed, in contravention of the rules AFAIK, but IANAL.
I wouldn’t go so far as advocating kill all the lawyers. However, a lawyer who becomes Prime Mincer, and encourages the prosecution of thought crime, that would be different.
Publishing? Surely the website she posted on did the publishing.
With SocMed you are the publisher (and the product).
She should have said “Not Guilty” and “I want a trial by jury”. She would have got off. I understand these violent rioters, like her OBVIOUSLY, are being lied to to plead guilty to get a reduced sentence. What bollox!
“Plead guilty or you’ll be remanded in custody on a wing occupied by violent rapists”
“Plead guilty and you’ll be sentenced to custody on a wing occupied by violent rapists”.
I’d fuck up their pathetic show trials for shits and giggles even if I were guilty.
Should have read
“Plead guilty OR ELSE you’ll be REMANDED to custody on a wing occupied by violent rapists”.