The gunman who killed a 26-year-old beautician when he opened fire outside a pub on Christmas Eve has been sentenced to life with a minimum term of 48 years.
Connor Chapman, 23, was found guilty following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court of the murder of Elle Edwards, who was hit twice in the back of the head when he fired 12 shots from a Skorpion submachine gun outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village, Wirral, Merseyside, shortly before midnight on December 24 last year.
He was sentenced by Mr Justice Goose on Friday.
As Chapman was taken down from the dock, there were shouts of “scumbag” and “rat” from Ms Edwards’ family in the public gallery.
Mr Justice Goose described the CCTV showing the murder as “utterly shocking”.
He said six people had been outside the pub when the attack happened.
He said: “What you did, Connor Chapman, to those six victims, was as wicked as it was shocking.
“You murdered Elle Edwards, bringing an end to her young life.”
Nigel Power KC, prosecuting, said the murder was the culmination of a gang feud in Wirral, where there had been nine shootings in 2022.
He said Chapman had recorded a rap video while in custody last year after an aggravated burglary at his mother’s home.
If I were to die tomorrow, the coroner would write on my death certificate ’cause of death: she died of a broken heart’.”
In the video, he made comments including: “If I make it out of here I’m due to become famous because if you touch one of mine, I’ll leave your soul on the pavement.”
He also said: “I know I’ve been a scumbag but I’m proud of that. “
Statements from Ms Edwards’ father Tim, brother Connor and grandmother Susan were read to the court.
A paragraph from her mother, Gaynor, was included in Mr Edwards’ statement in which she said: “First of all I want to know why have you done this, what drove you to do this to my daughter? Since Elle has been gone I have never been the same, I can’t accept that she has gone. I still think she’ll come home.”
Her grandmother said: “If I were to die tomorrow, the coroner would write on my death certificate ’cause of death: she died of a broken heart’.”
Mark Rhind KC said there was “very little” mitigation and said: “I cannot suggest there is remorse.”
He said Chapman had two children, one whom he had never met, and they would be middle-aged by the time he was released.
Co-defendant Thomas Waring was sentenced to nine years for possession of a prohibited weapon and assisting an offender.
The trial heard the shooting was the culmination of a feud between gangs on the Woodchurch estate, where Chapman lived, and the Beechwood, or Ford, estate on the opposite side of the M53 in Wirral.
The father-of-two claimed he was at home all night when the shooting happened and that he had given another man, whom he refused to name, the key to a stolen Mercedes parked in a car park near his home on Houghton Road.
But, the jury found it was Chapman who had driven the car to the busy pub and waited outside for almost three hours before launching the attack, which injured his targets, Jake Duffy and Kieran Salkeld, and three other men who were unconnected to the feud.
After the shooting he fled the scene in the car and drove to friend Thomas Waring’s house, where CCTV showed Chapman, with distinctive long hair, appearing to drop the gun on the pavement as he walked towards the address.
A week later, on New Year’s Eve, he and Waring, 20, drove to Frodsham, Cheshire, where they burned out the stolen Mercedes.
As well as murder, Chapman was convicted of two counts of attempted murder, two counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, as well as possession of a Skorpion submachine gun with intent to endanger life and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
He pleaded guilty before the trial to a charge of handling stolen goods.
Waring, of Private Drive, Barnston, was convicted of possession of a prohibited firearm and assisting an offender and pleaded guilty before the trial to failing to comply with a disclosure notice.
