Drug-dealer Connor Chapman will spend at least 48 years in prison for taking the life of young beautician Elle Edwards in a botched gangland hit.
“Wholly innocent” Elle, 26, had been enjoying a night out with her sister and friends when she was caught in a hail of bullets outside the Lighthouse pub, Wallasey Village. Elle was struck in the head and died almost instantly, while five men were also injured, one critically.
A jury of seven women and five men came to a unanimous decision on Chapman's guilt yesterday after three hours and 48 minutes of deliberation, following a three and a half week trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
READ MORE: Elle Edwards latest: Jury retires to consider verdicts in Connor Chapman murder trial
Chapman’s friend Thomas Waring, 20, was also convicted of possession of a prohibited weapon, and assisting an offender by helping Chapman torch a stolen black Mercedes car used to flee the scene. The 20-year-old was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Today trial judge Mr Justice Goose described Chapman as a "highly dangerous man".
Justice Goose said: “Shortly before midnight on Christmas Eve last year, the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village was busy with revellers enjoying the season and looking forward to Christmas day. Six of them found themselves outside the building. They were Elle Edwards, Kieran Salkeld, Jake Duffy, Harry Loughran, Liam Carr, and Nicholas Speed.
“They were not all together, they just happened to be there. What you did to them was as wicked as it was shocking. You murdered Elle Edwards, bringing to an end her young life. You attempted to murder Jake Duffy and Kieran Salkeld, causing them very serious injury.
“You obtained a submachine gun loaded with 12 bullets and prepared to fire all of them. Your intention was to murder Jake Duffy and Kieran Salkeld. You didn’t care who else would be killed. That’s why you fired all the bullets at the group. I’m satisfied you are a highly dangerous man.
“It’s utterly shocking you carefully planned a revenge attack in a gang rivalry. You had no thought for anyone else. The risks of what you did were as high as they were obvious.”
During the trial Nigel Power, KC, prosecuting, described 23-year-old career criminal Chapman as “at the heart” of the Woodchurch estate organised crime group. That group, he said, was engaged in a violent, tit-for-tat feud with a rival group of criminals based around the Beechwood/Ford estate, on the opposite side of the M53 motorway.
Somehow, Chapman became aware that several of his enemies were celebrating in the busy Lighthouse pub that evening. Rather than forget the rivalry for one night and spend his first Christmas Eve out of a prison cell in four years with his partner and young daughter, Chapman instead opted to collect a Skorpion sub-machine gun, capable of discharging around 15 rounds in under one second, and hopped in that stolen Mercedes.
CCTV footage showed how he staked out the pub for nearly three hours before taking his shot.
Inside, meanwhile, Elle was recorded on CCTV happily chatting with her friends. At one stage she even left for a period to go to another pub, before dropping her sister Lucy off at home and returning to the Lighthouse.
At 11.47pm, Elle left the pub for a cigarette where she was seen on CCTV chatting to the other victims. Tragically for Elle, she was stood next to Beechwood gang associates Kieran Salkeld and Jake Duffy.
In the carpark, Chapman, with his trademark long brown hair and face covered by a hood or balaclava, was loitering. Harrowing CCTV footage, played again and again in the trial as Elle’s family looked on, showed him stepping out from the side of the pub and unleashing 12 shots, simultaneously backing towards the getaway car.
Elle slumped forwards, instantly unconscious, landing on Salkeld who had fallen straight onto his back.
During the sentence hearing, Elle's dad Tim read a harrowing victim impact statements. He said: "On December 24 2022 my daughter was doing what every young person should be doing at christmas. Looking forward to Christmas Day with her family. That will never happen again.
“She was the most caring, beautiful, happy person. She was the one every kid went to for help, or maybe just a hug.
“Her permanent smile would light up any room she entered. She would always greet you with a hug and ask how are you doing. She always gave the best hugs, and it was always enough to lift you if you were having a bad day.
"Elle was trying her hardest to make something of herself. She always got to where she wanted to be. She was reaching her peak and the happiest I’’ve ever seen her. She had such a bright future. Elle was a fantastic sister. The bond the four of them has is unbreakable. She would give all her spare time to her brothers and sisters. Elle did the same with her friends.
“Elle loved the company of her grandparents and was always calling in to see them. It was her second home. Elle cared for her grandmother and the two would often go out for afternoon tea or lunch somewhere. She would always make sure her nan had a great day out. The same went for her other grandfather George. She would go out the way to have a catch up with him.
“I can’t begin to explain the devastating effect this has. The only people who go through such a horrific experience can ever know how it feels. I hope the people in this room never have to experience what we are going through now. We have been given a life sentence. Whenever we celebrate birthdays, easter, family celebrations there will always be Elle missing. We know if she was there, it was always going to be a great time full of laughter and cheer.
“We will always wonder what her children would be like, what her career would turn out like. We will never know. We never asked for this punishment.
“The event of Christmas Eve have impacted us in a huge number of ways. The feeling of loss of a child is so devastating it really can’t be put into words. It’s hard to focus on the future when no matter what we do there is nothing to bring back our daughter. I will do my best to make sure her name is never forgotten and use her name to help those who need it.
“Christmas will never be celebrated. Gone is the time of Christmas as a time to be together. We will never all be together.”
The jury had heard Salkeld and Duffy are already serving jail sentences for dishing out a savage beating to a Woodchurch linked criminal, Sam Searson, the day before the shooting.
Salkeld was the most severely injured of the survivors after a bullet penetrated his chest causing internal bleeding and organ damage, while Duffy was wounded in both legs.
Three other men injured by the volley of bullets; Harry Loughran, Liam Carr and Nicholas Speed, all described as “innocent bystanders”, made quicker recoveries.
Duffy, the jury heard, had been spotted in a stolen vehicle later used in the shooting of a man called Kieran Cowley, outside the address of a criminal associate of Chapman called Mason Smith, in Noctorum on December 18.
Another friend of Chapman, Curtis Byrne, was also shot in an attack believed to be related to the feud in Orrets Meadow Road, Woodchurch, on December 3.
Nigel Power, KC, prosecuting, told the jury: “Gun crime often includes criminals shooting at each other. There’s no doubt this is such an event, but of course here, a young, beautiful, unconnected, innocent, life was brutally ended as a direct result of the then ongoing, but for now at least paused, gun feud between the Ford Estate and the Woodchurch Estate.”
Chapman claimed he was at home all night on the evening of the shooting, telling the jury that although he accepted his friend, Byrne, had been shot “he wasn’t angry about it” and had no plan for revenge.
He accepted he was a drug-dealer with a long-list of previous convictions, but told the jury: “I wouldn’t say I’m an expert criminal. I’m not proud of what I’ve done. I’m not trying to portray myself in any kind of way. I’ve not said one good word about myself. I’ve told the truth and nothing but the truth.”
However Mr Power said CCTV evidence showed someone leaving Chapman’s home in Houghton Road, Woodchurch, at 8.31pm and getting into the Mercedes 12 minutes later.
A combination of CCTV and automatic number plate recognition cameras tracked the Mercedes to Wallasey village, where it stayed until the shooting.
Afterwards, the jury heard the car was tracked to Private Drive, Barnston, the home address of his long-term friend Waring.
CCTV from Private Drive showed a figure with long hair walking along and dropping the gun, which skidded along the floor.
A taxi, booked by Waring under a fake name and with a vague pick up point, took Chapman home to Woodchurch at around 5am on Christmas morning.
The pair then took steps to cover up their vile crime by driving in convoy to a remote spot off Grassy Lane, Frodsham, on New Year’s Eve, where the stolen Mercedes was torched.
Chapman told the jury he accepted he had access to the car for weeks before the murder, but claimed it was a “pool car” used by him and others mainly for drug-dealing.
He said a man who called him shortly before he left to travel to Wallasey had arranged to take the car that evening, and sent an underling to pick up the keys.
The jury heard Chapman accepted he burned the car out, but claimed this was after he figured out it had been used in the shooting and because he knew he was “forensically linked” to it.
Waring, who refused to give evidence in what Mr Power called “the ultimate in cowardice”, told his barrister William England to suggest to Chapman that he did in fact travel to Waring’s house after midnight on Christmas Day, effectively shredding his defence.
However Waring’s case was that although his phone was tracked on the journey to burn out the car, someone else was using it and he was not involved.
The jury never heard any more from him.
Much of what Chapman did next was not disputed, the jury heard.
After initially preparing to flee to Santander in Spain via car ferry, Chapman became aware the police were hunting for him when a search warrant was executed and the home of his grandparents in Woodland Road, Woodchurch. In a call from Chapman’s granddad’s phone, a police sergeant asked him to hand himself in for questioning over a “serious” matter, which Chapman refused to do.
Instead, he asked a friend to book a stay for him and his partner in Penllwyn Lodges, North Wales.
Merseyside Police soon got wind their man was over the border and an operation involving plain clothes police officers was executed on January 10 at a Tesco in Newtown.
Although the murder weapon was never recovered, the investigation revealed Chapman’s DNA in a mixed sample on a bullet casing found at the scene and on a red glove recovered from Waring’s home which matched one the gunman was wearing. A single particle of gunshot residue was also present on the glove.
As the verdicts were read, Elle’s family let out sighs of relief, whispered "yes" and her dad, Tim Edwards, punched the air.
Chapman was convicted of Elle’s murder, the attempted murders of Salkeld and Duffy, wounding Mr Loughran and Mr Carr with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and assaulting Mr Speed causing actual bodily harm.
He was also convicted of possessing an prohibited weapon and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
