To think Lucy Connolly has been made an example of?

[SouthernFashionista]

Have any of you read this article about Lucy Connolly who tweeted inflammatory comments following the Southport murders? I have to admit that at the time I was fully supportive of having her locked up, with the key thrown away. But reading this article made me view it all a little differently. Surely she has done her time?
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/04/lucy-connolly-southport-riots-axel-rudakubana-taylor-swift/

Why would the judge be a laughing stock amongst her peers?

The plea was guilty, the judge followed the sentencing guidelines. Judges don't arbitrarily hand out sentences according to their whims.

Meant to attach this. Note that Connellys own counsel agreed with the prosecution about the serious nature of her crime:

To summarise many posters intentions: yes she should be punished. The law is an ass (cf non custodians for possession of images of CSA)

The irony is that I actually agree about sentencing and conviction rates for child abusers, rapists etc. It IS an absolute joke. Rape IS illegal mostly in name only.

However, legally, that is all irrelevant. No judge goes well Jimmy got a suspended sentence for CSA images last week so now I’m going to ignore these guidelines and let this woman walk free. That’s not how it works. Judges don’t decide or set the guidelines, neither can they ignore them (except in very extreme circumstances) and that has to be documented and justified.

If she had pled to a lesser charge, there would’ve been the possibility of a much lesser sentence or even a community order. If she had gone to trial she might’ve been found not guilty of the crime at that level of seriousness. She didn’t. She admitted she committed the cat A crime at level 1 culpability (highest) so that was the sentence it came with. Starting point 3 years, range 2 (considering mitigating factors) to 6 years .

Comparing the two is pointless and doesn’t achieve anything except being able to throw some emotive sound bites. “Ohhh you think tweeting is worse than raping children!” like some kind of irrefutable gotcha.

'If she had pled to a lesser charge, there would’ve been the possibility of a much lesser sentence or even a community order. If she had gone to trial she might’ve been found not guilty of the crime at that level of seriousness. She didn’t. She admitted she committed the cat A crime at level 1 culpability (highest) so that was the sentence it came with'

Well her legal team need sacking then, why on earth didn't they give her better advice.

No one is trying to have a 'gotcha' moment we are discussing how very wrong it is that a young mother has been banged uo when many walk free for far worse offences.

People are angry and disappointed in the justice system. We are voicing our anger and there is nothing 'gotcha' about that.

It was a public defender if I remember correctly? I’m not entirely sure she got the best or accurate advice on how to deal with this. Whether she was made fully aware of the legal consequences, or too arrogant/ignorant to fully realise that what she was pleading guilty to came with a prison sentence. I can’t fully blame her lawyer as I don’t know exactly what was said in those meetings.

Welcome to Hipee's dystopia

You are aware it's the judiciary that locks her up not the government of the day yes ?
It's called habeas corpus. even morons are entitled to that

This 100%.

The telegraph?!?! I biased right wing paper?
Can't even read it unless you subscribe.

Disagree. Men with images of child abuse are allowed to walk free. Men who abuse actual people who carry the scars for the rest of their lives walk free.

She removed the tweet & apologised. Her punishment is wildly disproportionate compared to the punishments given to others.

There are convicted paedophiles who get no jail time and yet she’s jailed for 1 tweet! It’s absolute insanity. It really is.

Agree completely.

We can’t jail everyone convicted of everything, we have to be selective about who is a greater risk to the public.

Who is a greater risk - a woman tweeting something vile in a heated moment, or a paedophile?

And yes she absolutely was made an example of. These kinds of vile tweets are ten a penny as the internet is a cesspit - how many of them are jailed? Two tiers indeed.

Nobody should be punished for words, either spoken or written.

That’s censorship.

This is Britain, a free country.

What’s next? Burning books? No thanks.

"Nobody should be punished for words, either spoken or written"

Legally, this is not the case, even in the USA, despite claims to the contrary by JD vance.

So if I lived in your village and told all your neighbours that you were a terrorist/ pedophile without proof that's just free speech is it ?;
Free speech comes with responsibility.

Completely agree @Wildflowers99- it’s absolute insanity that sex offenders walk free & yet she is still in jail.

But she didn’t do that did she? She didn’t target 1 person, she made a generalised deeply unpleasant remark which was non specific. She didn’t incite anything in particular. She was venting, essentially, in an appalling way. But fucking jail time when she has children to care for, when men who view the most unspeakable acts of child abuse for their own perverted pleasures walk free? Fuck THAT

But that's not the op said. And by the way I totally agree with your statement .
My point ya just can't say stuff that may not be true and expect no consequences.
Surely that's true ?

https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/crime/you-have-little-acceptance-for-your-actions-what-crown-court-judge-said-as-he-sentenced-lucy-connolly-4828976

She deserves everything she gets. She wasn’t even remorseful.

Jail isn't the automatic sentence for anyone who has ever done anything bad though

being okay with something and not thinking jail is the best form of punishment are two ends of a spectrum - there are lots of options in-between

I'm not saying she doesn't deserve punishment - of course she does.
If we had limitless jail facilities and incarcerating someone had no cost to the public then maybe it could be defendable.

But in our current position, where it costs over £50k a year per inmate,
And we are releasing violent and repeat offenders because we don't have room in prisons
And most people (men) arrested for CSA porn don't get custodial sentences
And police don't have resources to attend crimes like DV/break ins/shoplifting, let alone get them to prosecution, at which point they wouldn't even be sentenced anyway?

There is no evidence that anyone was actually driven to any action due to her tweet. The risk to the public from her is very low. Therefore I would prefer that people who are an actual risk go to prison, and first time offenders of non-violent crimes are dealt with in various other ways - large fine, community service, etc. Plus the non-judicial effect of public shaming, etc.

I would absolutely say the same thing if she had made the remarks about any other group of people, including those I am a part of. It absolutely is hate speech and deserving of punishment. I just don't think jail is the correct one. It's not even about what she 'deserves' it's about consistency and proportionality in the justice system as a whole.

He wasn’t in charge of what the sentencing guidelines said, or of what sentences were handed out during the riots, when he was DPP either.

The judge could have given her a community order or something. They didn't have to choose a jail sentence. So I'm guessing that's why.

Could he? How exactly?