Race hate case against Tory councillor’s wife adjourned until September

Criminal proceedings against the wife of a Conservative councillor accused of stirring up racial hatred have been adjourned for three weeks after her lawyer asked for a delay in her case.

Lucy Connolly, the wife of West Northamptonshire councillor Raymond Connolly, spoke only to confirm her identity during an 11-minute hearing at Northampton Crown Court on Monday.

Prosecutors allege the 41-year-old childminder intended to stir up racial hatred when she posted a message to X, on the day three girls were stabbed to death in Southport, which read: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the bastards for all I care… If that makes me racist, so be it.”

Connolly, of Parkfield Avenue, Northampton, has yet to be asked to enter a formal plea to a charge of publishing threatening or abusive material intending to stir up racial hatred.

Applying for the case to be adjourned, Connolly’s barrister Liam Muir told Judge Adrienne Lucking KC that the “great public interest” in the case was not lost on him.

The court heard he intends to seek a psychiatric report before the charge is put to Connolly to enter a plea.

Connolly, whose husband attended the hearing in the public gallery, was remanded in custody to reappear at the same court on September 2.