Elon Musk has criticised prison chiefs for denying a mother jailed over last summer’s riots the right to spend temporary leave with her daughter and sick husband.
The billionaire owner of X and adviser to Donald Trump, indicated that he was “100 per cent” behind demands that Free Speech Union member Lucy Connolly, who was jailed for 31 months for inciting racial hatred in a tweet, should be released on temporary licence (ROTL). The Telegraph has the story:
Connolly has been forced to wait four months on her request for ROTL after becoming eligible in November last year.
Documents seen by The Telegraph suggest that the 42-year-old childminder from Northampton has not yet been granted the leave amid concerns over public and media interest in her case rather than any apparent failure to meet the criteria for temporary release.
In her appeal, Connolly cited a deterioration in her 12-year-old daughter’s school behaviour, which is “totally out of character” and the stress being placed on her sick husband, Ray, a Tory councillor, who is suffering from bone marrow failure.
Connolly was arrested after a post on X in the wake of the Southport killings. She spoke of mass deportations and setting fire to asylum hotels “for all I care”.
“I feel physically sick knowing what these [Southport] families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist so be it,” she added.
She took it down within four hours but not before it had been viewed 310,000 times and screenshot. She was interviewed by police on Aug 6 and charged three days later.
She has been in prison since August, after pleading guilty. She was sentenced in October.
Mr Musk retweeted a post criticising the 31-month sentence and denial of temporary leave from prison. The post referenced criticism of free speech by the US vice-president, saying: “JD Vance was right again.”
The billionaire also reposted another post that suggested memes in the US equated to two years in jail in Britain.
Prison service sources have denied Connolly’s application for ROTL had been blocked and said it was being considered by the governor at HMP Drake Hall in Staffordshire, to where she was transferred in January.
Worth reading in full.
With the Free Speech Union’s help, Connolly is now seeking to appeal against her sentence on the basis the trial judge made a mistake over categorising the severity of her crime and failed to give sufficient weight to her mitigating circumstances including her emotional sensitivity to children’s deaths after the loss of her 19-month-old son in a hospital blunder.
