Heartrendering footage of Elle Edwards cuddling her little nephew has been released by her family after her killer was found guilty of murder today.
The beautician, caught in crossfire at a shooting outside a pub on Christmas Eve, is seen in two short clips, both shared on social media, embracing Roman.
Her family, who spoke of their grief after the verdict today, released the videos to the media via Merseyside Police in another heartbreaking tribute to Elle.
In one clip, the 26-year-old beautician blows raspberries on Roman's cheek and, in another, the pair pose for a poignant selfie at home.
In further footage, again released with family permission, the woman is seen driving a vehicle through a desert on a holiday abroad.
Connor Chapman, 23, was today convicted of Elle's murder, which Liverpool Crown Court heard was "human tragedy in its purest and most appalling sense".
Tim Edwards, Elle's father, kept his eyes were fixed upon the dock where Chapman was sat and punched the air with delight as the verdict was delivered.
Other members of her distraught family were heard to cry "yes", and several burst into tears as the verdicts were read out.
Elle was killed when Chapman opened fire with a Skorpion sub-machine gun outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village, Wirral, Merseyside, shortly before midnight on Christmas Eve.
In his closing speech on Tuesday at Liverpool Crown Court, Nigel Power KC, prosecuting, told the jury: “This is a trial that not just you 12 but many, many people will never forget. It involves human tragedy in its purest and most appalling sense.
"Gun crime often includes criminals shooting at each other, there’s no doubt that 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 on Wirral on the one hand and the Woodchurch estate on the other hand."
And it's this gang warfare - a feud between two groups on either side of a motorway - which led to the tragedy.
No one, though, could have anticipated it would culminate in the death of an innocent woman. Just 24 hours before the shooting, a brutal attack on a man named Sam Searson was caught on a Ring doorbell camera.
Speaking today after the guilty verdict, Tim said: "It just means he’s (Chapman) off the streets, someone else is not going to suffer at the hands of him. Unfortunately Elle was his last victim but thankfully she will be the last person he does anything to and he can go fade away. We’ve got justice and we can start going forward then.
"I think Elle’s legacy hopefully will be something that people draw a bit of positivity from. She was a caring person, she would give more of her time to other people than she did to herself. If she can be remembered for that and for her warmth and her young 26-year-old happy-go-lucky life that she was living.
"She wouldn’t want you sitting around moping and going downhill, she wouldn’t want that, she’d want you to live the best life you possibly can. That was the way she approached people or dealt with people, she’d lift your spirits."
