A two-tier justice row has erupted after an engineer was jailed for half as long as Lucy Connolly over a near-identical tweet, while a Labour MP who punched a constituent to the ground was spared jail completely. The Telegraph has more.
Joseph Haythorne, 26, posted “Go on Rotherham burn any hotels with those scruffy b——s in it” on August 4th last year as violence erupted in the South Yorkshire town.
At Sheffield Crown Court on Wednesday, the engineer from Surrey, who admitted inciting racial hatred, was jailed for 15 months.
His jail term is less than half the 31 months handed to Connolly, a mother of one who is married to a Conservative councillor.
Critics claimed the sentence was “a clear example of two-tier justice”.
She was jailed in October last year after posting an online message on the day of the Southport murders, that read: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f—ing hotels full of the b——s for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous government politicians with them.”
The 42 year-old, who lost a child of her own in tragic circumstances, deleted the post fewer than four hours later, but not before it had been viewed 310,000 times.
Her husband, Ray Connolly told the Telegraph: “He can thank his lucky stars his partner isn’t a Tory councillor.”
Chris Philp, the Shadow Home Secretary said: “There are a lot of inconsistencies in sentencing. A rapist recently received only 28 months and the Attorney General, Lord Hermer, refused to allow that sentence to be reviewed.
“It cannot be right that Lucy Connolly got a longer sentence for a tweet than someone convicted of rape.”
Speaking about the sentence handed to Haythorne, Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, said: “Another ludicrous jail sentence. Fifteen months for a nasty offensive tweet lasting 17 minutes.
“On this basis, if justice is consistent [and] not two-tier, then Bob Vylan could face being jailed for over five years for his vile singing at Glastonbury.”
Lord Young, the General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, said: “No one should be sent to prison for a tweet. This is not a good use of valuable prison spaces that should be kept for thieves, muggers, stabbers and drug dealers.
“How can it be right that a Labour MP who repeatedly punched a constituent, knocking him to the ground, received a suspended sentence, but a 26 year-old should be jailed for 15 months for one ill-advised tweet?
“It’s a clear example of two-tier justice and risks undermining public confidence in our criminal justice system.”
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