‘Political Prisoner’ Mum’s Prison HELL: Handcuffed and Left with Bruises for Challenging Jail Move
She’s already serving 31 months for a tweet that took her three hours to delete – now Lucy Connolly faces a new ordeal behind bars that’s left her with yellowing bruises on her wrists.
In explosive claims that’ll fuel the ‘two-tier justice’ debate, Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice says the jailed mum was handcuffed and forcibly moved to a high-security wing after questioning why she wasn’t being transferred to enhanced accommodation.
Mr Tice claimed Mrs Connolly had bruises on her wrists which he said were from handcuffs, revealing the shocking details after visiting her at HMP Peterborough on Tuesday.
Five days after the incident, the bruises on her wrists are still significant – yellow,” he told reporters outside the prison. “It was obviously horrible what she went through.”
From Childminder to ‘Political Prisoner’
The 42-year-old former childminder – whose Tory councillor husband Ray has been forced to sell their car to pay legal bills – is at the centre of a growing free speech storm that’s reached all the way to the White House.
Connolly was jailed for a post on X in which she wrote: “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.” The tweet, posted hours after the Southport attacks that killed three young girls, was viewed 310,000 times before she deleted it.
But it’s what happened last Thursday that’s sparked fresh outrage. According to Tice, when Connolly was told she wouldn’t be moved to an enhanced wing with full privileges but would instead face 23-hour-a-day lockdown with the most violent prisoners, she dared to challenge the decision.
That’s when prison officers allegedly pounced.
‘Manhandled Without Provocation’
“On Thursday, she was manhandled, mistreated with no provocation,” Tice claimed. “She was denied enhanced accommodation to which she was entitled and they gave her, frankly, the Nutters Wild Wing – druggies, violence.”
The Reform deputy leader didn’t mince words about what he believes is really going on: “You have to think it’s politically motivated. I think the next few weeks before her release are going to be very challenging, worrying.
Most chilling of all? Tice fears the authorities might be trying to provoke a reaction. “I think it would suit the authorities to want to provoke a violent reaction from Lucy. I told Lucy to be very careful.”
Speaking outside HMP Peterborough, where he visited Connolly on Tuesday, Mr Tice said she was a “political prisoner. I genuinely fear that she is actually being treated as a political prisoner for political purposes,” he added.
Prison Bosses Under Scrutiny
The deputy Reform leader met with HMP Peterborough’s head of security, who he says is “looking at the complaint seriously. But Tice warned that if bodycam footage mysteriously goes missing, he’ll escalate matters further.
“If they have ‘lost’ the bodycam footage or any of that funny business then I will escalate the complaint and meet the Governor,” he declared.
Sodexo, the private prison firm running HMP Peterborough, remained tight-lipped when approached for comment.
The Tweet That Started It All
The post followed three girls being stabbed and killed at a holiday club in Southport on July 29, sparking nationwide unrest. Misinformation spread rapidly that the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker who’d arrived by boat – when 17-year-old Axel Munganwa Rudakubana was actually born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents.
Connolly’s case has become a lightning rod for free speech campaigners. Last week Connolly told the Court of Appeal in London she “never” intended to incite violence and did not realise pleading guilty would mean she accepted that she had.
The court heard that Connolly’s son died around 14 years ago, and that news of the murders of the children in Southport had caused a resurgence of her anxiety around his death. The Connollys lost their 19-month-old son Harry in 2011, leaving them with what Connolly described as a deep mistrust of government institutions.
‘Lucy’s Bill’ – The People’s Justice
Not content with just prison visits, Tice is taking the fight to Parliament. He’s introducing “Lucy’s Bill” on Wednesday – a revolutionary proposal that would let the public challenge sentences they believe are too harsh or lenient.
Under the Bill, campaigners would need to get 500 people to sign a petition against a punishment handed down in Crown Court. Cases would then be reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission for eight weeks.
Never underestimate the common sense of the Great British public and their gut instinct for where something is fair or not fair,” Tice declared. We’re all human, judges can get things wrong, and sometimes there can be political pressure.
He claimed the Prime Minister had “effectively ordered the judges to give very strict sentences”, adding: “There’s a lot of concern amongst the British public that Lucy Connolly and others were the victims of two-tier justice.
Failed Appeal and Family Heartbreak
Connolly launched an appeal against her 31-month prison sentence for inciting racial hatred but it was dismissed today at the Court of Appeal. Judges ruled that “there is no arguable basis on which it could be said that the sentence imposed by the judge was manifestly excessive”.
Her husband Ray was left “heartbroken” by the decision. “My wife has paid a very high price for making a mistake and today the court has shown her no mercy,” he said after the ruling.
The sentence has attracted criticism from political heavyweights. Former PM Boris Johnson and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch have both claimed it was too harsh. Even Labour MP Mary Glindon has become the first of her party to oppose the 31-month sentence, calling it “unduly harsh” and saying Connolly “doesn’t pose a threat to the public”.
What They’re Saying
Donald Trump ally Charlie Kirk has declared that free speech is “dead” in the UK, citing the prison sentence handed to Lucy Connolly as proof.
Meanwhile, a fundraiser for Connolly has passed $100,000, with supporters claiming “there is no proof her tweet stirred up racism or violence” and that she was simply “expressing the anguish and frustration felt by millions of British people.
Mr Tice claimed Mrs Connolly had bruises on her wrists which he said were from handcuffs but that she was calm and wanted to see through her sentence and rebuild her life.
The case continues to divide opinion – but one thing’s certain: the treatment of Lucy Connolly behind bars has added fuel to an already raging fire about justice, free speech and whether Britain operates a two-tier system.
As Tice prepares to present his Bill to Parliament, the question remains: is Lucy Connolly a racist who got what she deserved, or a political prisoner paying the price for a moment of anger?
The bruises on her wrists suggest this story is far from over.
