CCTV footage caught the moment Connor Chapman and his accomplice set fire to a Mercedes used in the murder of Elle Edwards.
Edwards, 26, was shot and killed outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey, Wirral, Merseyside, on Christmas Eve last year. Chapman, of Houghton Road, Woodchurch, was found guilty of her murder this week and jailed for life with a minimum term of 48 years.
Thomas Waring was also jailed alongside him and was found to have taken custody of a Skorpion submachine gun which was used to shoot Elle and five others shortly before midnight on December 24. A stolen Mercedes A-Class was driven straight to the killer's home on Private Drive, Barnston, following the incident, the Liverpool Echo reports.
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A week after, Chapman and Waring drove in convoy to a rural area of Frodsham, Cheshire, and torched the Mercedes. During a three-and-a-half-week trial, Liverpool Crown Court heard how a dog walker came across the destroyed vehicle.
Virgina Kerr was walking her dogs on Grassy Lane shortly before 1pm on January 1 when she made the discovery. In a statement read to the jury, she described how she noticed the Merc "burned right down to the metal" before police recovered it.
Now, CCTV footage released by Merseyside Police showed the moment the car was set alight at a nearby industrial unit. In the footage, a bright light slowly growing in the distance can be seen.
Chapman was unanimously convicted of Elle's murder following three hours and 48 minutes of deliberations by jurors, as well as the attempted murder of Kieran Salkeld and Jake Duffy, wounding with intent against Liam Carr and Harry Loughran, assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Nicholas Speed and possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life. The 23-year-old had previously pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods in relation to the Mercedes.
Meanwhile, Waring was found guilty of assisting an offender and possession of a prohibited weapon. The 20-year-old, who had also admitted failing to comply with a disclosure notice after refusing to provide police with the password to his mobile phone, was imprisoned for nine years.
