Thug who made gang rape threat could have sentence reviewed amid 'two-tier justice' claims

A thug who threatened an air hostess with "gang rape" shouldn't have received a shorter sentence than Lucy Connolly, the Conservatives have claimed. Salman Iftikhar was sentenced to 15 months in prison for racially motivated harassment and threats to kill after threatening the airline employee on a flight from Heathrow to Lahore in February 2023.

Iftikhar, 37, told air stewardess Angie Walsh: "You will be dragged by your hair from your room and gang raped and set on fire." Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp compared his sentence to that of Connolly, who was jailed for 31 months for inciting racial hatred in a social media post after the murder of three girls in Southport.

Mr Philp told the Mail he has written to Attorney General, Lord Hermer, urging him to review Iftikhar's sentence under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.

The Tory MP points to Iftikhar's six previous convictions in the letter, including for common assault and drink-driving.

Mr Philp's letter adds: "Despite this, Iftikhar only received a 15-month sentence, less than half of Lucy Connolly's 31-month sentence (a prosecution which you authorised).

"Connolly made a wrong and distasteful social media post which she then deleted, but Iftikhar made over 100 sickening threats including of gang rape directly to Ms Walsh personally, face to face, and to other members of the cabin crew's faces and has multiple previous convictions".

The Shadow Home Secretary says in his letter that should Lord Hermer choose not to refer Iftikhar's sentence for reconsideration, the decision would be "yet another example of two-tier justice" under the Labour Government.

The Attorney General's Office confirmed it has received a letter from the Shadow Home Secretary with a request for Iftikhar's sentence to be considered under the Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) scheme and aresponse would be provided in due course.

A spokesperson added: "We have received multiple referrals to consider this sentence. A referral under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme to the Court of Appeal can only be made if a sentence is not just lenient but unduly so, such that the sentencing judge made an error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in the circumstances of the offence."

The spokesperson said anyone can ask for someone's crown court sentence to be reviewed if they think it's too low and by law only certain types of case can be reviewed, such as murder, manslaughter and rape.

In a post on X last year, Connolly called for mass deportations and urged followers to set fire to migrant hotels. The then-childminder said if that made her racist "then so be it".

She deleted the tweet after three and a half hours of posting it, but it had been reposted over 900 times. Court of Appeal judges refused to reduce her sentence in May. Her case has become the focus of a debate about freedom of speech in Britain.

Connolly has been backed by Reform UK, whose deputy leader, Richard Tice, has visited her in prison.