FALSE CLAIMS HAVE been re-shared that the perpetrator of the Southport stabbings last year was an immigrant, amid arguments over the jailing of a British woman for advocating that hotels housing immigrants should be burned down.

Three children were stabbed to death last July when a seventeen-year-old boy attacked a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop in northern England.

In the aftermath of the attacks, riots erupted across England and Northern Ireland, with those involved often targeting immigrants or Muslims.

The perpetrator of the child stabbings, Axel Rudakubana, was born in Cardiff, Wales, to Christian parents originally from Rwanda.

He pleaded guilty to the murders after the riots.

The stabbings had been speculated to be a terrorist attack by online commentators, and although Rudakubana was found to have possessed an al Qaeda PDF, evidence has not supported those claims of terrorism and no motive has been established.

However, false rumours that the perpetrator was a Muslim migrant continue to spread, particularly in discussions about the case of a woman who was arrested for spreading hatred ahead of the riots.

“Lucy Connolly took to X to express her anger after learning an Islamic migrant murdered three young British girls,” reads a screenshot of a story posted on 5 April by the X account @amuse.

“Over 1,500 people were arrested for their social media posts and Lucy was just sentenced to two years and seven months for ‘stirring up racial hatred.’”

That post was viewed more than 56,700,000 times.

A version of the post was also shared by X’s owner, Elon Musk, which racked up 54 million views, according to statistics on the social media platform.

The account description for @Amuse reads “Conservative Headlines & Articles” and in another post, they went on to say: “I heard the full story of the woman jailed for two years for a tweet. Her injustice shames Britain.”

A screenshot by the @amuse account which featured the claim that the perpetrator was an “Islamic migrant” was also shared dozens of times on Instagram, where it was viewed about 100,000 times, according to statistics from Instagram’s parent company, Meta.

It was also shared multiple times on Facebook, with multiple posts collectively accumulating tens of thousands of views. Some of these posts suggested Connolly was jailed “for offending someone with their social media posts”.

Lucy Connolly, the woman at the centre of the case, was sentenced to 31 months last October after pleading guilty to the offence of “distributing material with the intention of stirring up racial hatred.”

That crime falls under the UK’s Public Order Act of 1986, which, in its current form, can carry a prison sentence of up to seven years.

Connolly, the wife of a Conservative Party councillor, had posted on the evening of the Southport stabbing: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous government and politicians with them.”

Her post ended: “If that makes me racist so be it”.

Her X post was viewed 310,000 times before it was deleted about three-and-a-half hours after it was posted.

The following day, a protest at a mosque near the scene of the attack turned violent, marking the beginning of a series of riots which would see more than 1,500 arrests.

Birmingham Crown Court found that Connolly had made other racist posts, both before and after the date of the stabbings, including one speculating the attacker was “one of these boat invaders.”

The court found that Connolly “intended to incite serious violence” with her post about setting hotels on fire, and sentenced her to 31 months in prison.

In sentencing remarks, the judge noted that some people had seen the stabbing as “an opportunity to sow division and hatred, often using social media, leading to a number of towns and cities being disfigured by mindless and racist violence, intimidation and damage”.

Then, speaking to Connolly, he said: “When you published those words you were well aware of how volatile the situation was. As everyone is aware, that volatility led to serious disorder in a number of areas of the country where mindless violence was used to cause injury and damage to wholly innocent members of the public and to their properties.”

He also noted that on the day before she was arrested, Connolly sent a Whatsapp message that read: “raging tweet about burning down hotels has bit me on the arse lol” [sic].

Police also found messages she had sent to her friends saying that, if she was questioned her about her posts encouraging hotels to be set ablaze, she would deny writing them and would, in her words, “play the mental health card”. 

In sentencing remarks, the judge told Connolly: “There is no evidence of any mental disorder having any material effect on you committing this offence” and “it is clear from the evidence of your own words in the days following your actions, what you said to the police and what you said to the probation officer that you have little insight into, or acceptance of, your actions”.

The judge noted that Connolly may be released from prison after 40 percent of her 31 months sentence is served, if she abides by conditions and commits no further crimes.

Connolly has not served that proportion of her sentence yet. However, her imprisonment has become something of a culture war issue, with some suggesting that her sentence was overly harsh, or that she should be released on other grounds.

Nevertheless, suggestions that she was arrested because her social media post was simply offensive are misleading; she was arrested because Connolly’s post was deemed to be “stirring up racial hatred”, which Connolly pleaded guilty to.

Claims that the perpetrator of the Southport Stabbings was an “Islamic migrant” are straightforwardly untrue.

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https://www.thejournal.ie/debunked-claims-about-lucy-connolly-convicted-of-racial-hatred-include-false-claims-the-southport-stabbing-attacker-was-an-islamic-immigrant-6671841-Apr2025/