The White House is ‘monitoring’ the case of Lucy Connolly after her bid to be freed from prison over a Tweet which ‘stirred up racial hatred’ was refused.
Connolly was jailed for 31 months after she posted an online rant about migrants hours after killer Axel Rudakubana murdered three young girls in Southport on July 29 last year.
The former childminder, who is the wife of Conservative councillor Ray Connolly, deleted the post after four hours but was arrested last August and pleaded guilty to a charge of inciting racial hatred in October.
Last week her appeal against her sentence was refused by three Court of Appeal judges meaning she faces serving another eight months behind bars.
In the wake of that decision, US officials have said they are keeping tabs on the developments in Connolly’s case over their ‘concerns’ about free speech in Britain.
A State Department spokesman said: ‘We can confirm that we are monitoring this matter.
‘The United States supports freedom of expression at home and abroad, and remains concerned about infringements on freedom of expression.’
It comes after MailOnline reported last week that Connolly’s case had been raised with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Connolly (pictured) was jailed for 31 months after admitting posting an online rant about migrants hours after killer Axel Rudakubana murdered three young girls in Southport on July 29 last year
US officials have said they are keeping tabs on the developments in Connolly’s case over ‘concerns’ they hold about free speech in Britain – it comes after it was raised with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (pictured)
The former childminder (right), who is the wife of Conservative councillor Ray Connolly (left), deleted the post after four hours but was arrested in August and pleaded guilty to a charge of inciting racial hatred in October
Political commentator and Trump ally Charlie Kirk was made aware of Connolly’s ordeal after a visit to the UK and vowed to get the US State Department involved in the process.
Appearing on GB News, Kirk said: ‘I am going to try and get the US State Department involved. I’m going to bring this up to Marco Rubio. I’m going to send him a text.’
Kirk had been in the UK for a debate at the Oxford Union on Monday when the case of Mrs Connolly was raised.
‘As of today, Lucy Connolly is going to jail for two-and-a-half years in this country for a social media post that she apologised for and deleted… That is not a free speech battle at all’, he said during the debate.
‘You should be allowed to say outrageous things. You should be allowed to say contrarian things. Free speech is a birthright that you gave us, and you guys decided not to codify it and now it’s – poof! – it is basically gone.’
Connolly had appealed against her sentence at the Royal Courts of Justice, describing how news of the Southport murders had triggered her anxiety caused when her baby son, Harry, died as the result of a hospital blunder 13 years earlier.
Her tweet, viewed 310,000 times before she deleted it three-and-a-half hours later, read: ‘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.’
Political commentator and Trump ally Charlie Kirk (pictured) was made aware of Connolly’s ordeal after a visit to the UK and vowed to get the US State Department involved in the process
Her now-deleted tweet (above) read: ‘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’
There was serious violent unrest across Britain following the Southport murders.
After Connolly’s appeal was dismissed on Tuesday, her husband said: ‘Lucy posted one nasty tweet when she was upset and angry about three little girls who were brutally murdered in Southport.
‘She realised the tweet was wrong and deleted it within four hours. That did not mean Lucy was a “far right thug”.’
Mr Connolly said his wife’s incarceration at HMP Drake Hall, Staffordshire – nine months so far – had been ‘very hard, particularly on our 12-year-old girl’.
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned Britain was ‘losing its reputation for free speech’ over people being arrested by police ‘simply for something we say’.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick asked: ‘How on earth can you spend longer in prison for a tweet than violent crime?’
There was serious violent unrest across Britain following the Southport murders committed by Axel Rudukubana (pictured)
Pictured: Serious violence and rioting by demonstrators broke out on the streets in Rotherham following the Southport attacks
‘Shoplifters with hundreds of prior convictions have avoided prison, a domestic abuser with 52 prior offences got off with just a suspended sentence, as did a paedophile with 110,000 indecent images of children.’
And Toby Young, the general secretary of the Free Speech Union, asked ‘how can it be right for Lucy to have been condemned to spend more than two-and-a-half years in jail for a single tweet when members of grooming gangs who plead guilty to the sexual exploitation of children get lower sentences?’
He said: ‘Lucy should be at home with her 12-year-old daughter and husband, not rotting in jail.’
It is expected that she will not be released before she has completed two fifths of her sentence, which will be in August.
