Woman jailed for race hate post on X loses appeal

BBC News, Northamptonshire Police May 20, 2025

Lucy Connolly called for "mass deportation" and hotels housing migrants to be set on fire on a social media account.A Conservative councillor's wife who was jailed for inciting racial hatred after an online rant against migrantson the day of the Southport attacks has had her appeal against her sentence dismissed.

Lucy Connolly, from Northampton, was jailed for 31 months in October after calling for "mass deportation now" and urging her followers on X to "set fire" to hotels housing asylum seekers. The tweet was viewed 310,000 times before it was deleted.

Her husband Ray, a member of Northampton Town Council, said he was "heartbroken" that the Court of Appeal had ruled that "there is no arguable basis on which it could be said that the sentence imposed by the judge was manifestly excessive".

Connolly posted the swearword-ridden message on 29 July 2024 - the day three girls were murdered at a dance class in Southport.

While calling for "mass deportations now", the 41-year-old childminder wrote: "If that makes me racist, so be it."She urged readers to "set fire" to "all the hotels" that were "full" of those she wished to deport.

The post had been deleted before Connolly was arrested on 6 August but it had already been viewed 310,000 times.

She was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court after pleading guilty to inciting racial hatred and told that she would serve 40% of her sentence in prison before being released on licence.

Giving a written judgment on Tuesday,three Court of Appeal judges said Connolly's principal ground of appeal "was substantially based on a version of events put forward by the applicant which we have rejected".

At the Appeal Court hearing last week, Ray Connolly said he hoped his wife would be out of prison soon.

Connolly's husband rejected a call from a local MP for his resignation from West Northamptonshire Council, but lost his seat in this year's local elections as Reform UK took control of the unitary authority.

He remains a member of Northampton Town Council.

After Tuesday's appeal court decision, he issued a statement saying he was "heartbroken" his wife's appeal had been dismissed."My wife has paid a very high price for making a mistake and today the court has shown her no mercy," he added.

He went on to say that "the 284 days of separation" had been "very hard, particularly on our 12-year-old girl".

"Lucy posted one nasty tweet when she was upset and angry about three little girls who were brutally murdered in Southport," he said.

"She realised the tweet was wrong and deleted it within four hours.

"My wife Lucy is a good person and not a racist. As a childminder she took care of small children of African and Asian heritage; they loved Lucy as she loved them."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3v5926yeqro

Head of Trump’s Kennedy Center Calls for Inquiry Into Its Finances

The center’s new president said prosecutors should look at its “criminal” debt and deferred maintenance, as the center announced dance and theater offerings that include some with nonunion casts.

By Javier C. Hernández and Michael Paulson May 19, 2025Updated May 20, 20251/2

Richard Grenell, whom President Trump installed as the president of the Kennedy Center, claimed Monday night that the center’sdeferred maintenance and its deficit — two things commonly found at nonprofit arts organizations — were “criminal.” He said he would refer the matter to federal prosecutors.

Speaking to Mr. Trump and a group of board members at a dinner in the White House’s State Dining Room, Mr.Grenell said that officials who looked at the center’s budgets for the last two years had “found $26 million in phantom revenue, fake revenue.”

“It’s criminal,” Mr. Grenell said. “We’re going to refer this to the U.S. attorney’s office here.”

Kennedy Center officials attributed the deficit figures to a review undertaken by the center’s new chief financial officer, Donna Arduin. It was not immediately clear what officials thought might be criminal, or why they thought it merited the attention of federal investigators.Nonprofit arts organizations like the Kennedy Center rely on a mix of philanthropy and ticket sales and often run deficits when they fall short of projections. Just over a decade ago, the Metropolitan Opera ran a $22 million deficit.

Deborah F. Rutter, whom Mr. Trump fired as president when he took control of the center in February, was unavailable for comment. Mr. Trump took over the center after purging its formerly bipartisan board of Biden appointees, ousting its chairman, the financier David M. Rubenstein, and becoming chairman himself.

Christopher W. Ullman, a spokesman for Mr. Rubenstein, defended the center’s former management.

“With full transparency, the financial reports were reviewed and approved by the Kennedy Center’s audit committee and full board as well as a major accounting firm,”he said.

Speaking at the dinner, Mr. Trump reiterated his complaints about the physical condition of the center.“When I said, ‘I’ll do this,’ I hadn’t been there,” Mr. Trump said. “That’s the last time I’ll take a job without looking at it.” At one point, Mr. Trump compared his task at the Kennedy Center to his efforts to renovate Wollman Rink, an ice rink in New York’s Central Park, in the 1980s.

Earlier on Monday, the center announced that its next season would feature some big names in theater and dance. But there were some conspicuous absences in the announcement. And, in a break with the past, the center said it would present several touring Broadway shows with nonunion casts.

Artists have been divided about whether to perform at the center since Mr. Trump became its chairman.

The upcoming theater season will feature “The Outsiders,” which won last year’s Tony Award for best musical, but not “Hamilton,” which canceled a planned run there, citing dismay over Mr. Trump’s takeover. And its dance season will include performances by American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet but not by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, an annual fixture at the center in recent years.

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Mr. Trump continues to play a big role in trying to reshape the center.He attended a board meeting at the center in March, recently requested $257 million from Congress to help with capital repairs and plans to attend a gala fund-raiser performance of “Les Misérables” in June.

The upcoming theater season underscores some of the changes unfolding at the center. In addition to “The Outsiders,” it will include tours of “Back to the Future,” “Moulin Rouge!” and “Spamalot,” all of which feature unionized casts, as has been standard at the center in recent years.

But two of the tours coming to the Kennedy Center next season will feature nonunion casts, which tend to be paid less and cost less to present: “Chicago” and “Mrs. Doubtfire.”

The Kennedy Center had indicated in March that it anticipated turning to nonunion Broadway productions, and on Monday it touted the shift as a plus.

Mr. Grenell told The Daily Caller, a conservative media outlet:“The Kennedy Center is the premier institution for the arts in America, so we don’t want to limit the shows available to our audiences. The restrictive and expensive nature of union-only shows isn’t good for a diverse community. We want more options, not fewer.”

Actors’ Equity Association, the union representing actors and stage managers, declined to comment.

Mr. Trump criticized the Kennedy Center on social media earlier this year for having “featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth.” But that concern did not prevent the center from booking “Chicago,” which features a character usually played by a man in drag, or “Mrs. Doubtfire,” which is about a man who dresses as a woman. “Moulin Rouge!” also features a character, Baby Doll, who is a drag queen.

The dance season includes acclaimed contemporary troupes founded by Martha Graham, Trisha Brown and Kyle Abraham.

But the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which has been an annual fixture at the center, said it would not perform there next season. The company said in a statement that it had decided to “pursue an opportunity with a partner that has a global reach,” which it did not name, and that it hopes to return in the future.

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