Two men were shot as part of a violent feud between rival criminal groups before the dispute "culminated" in the murder of Elle Edwards, a court has heard.
The shootings occurred in the weeks before the beautician was killed after being struck by bullets fired from a Skorpion submachine gun outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey, Wirral, on Christmas Eve. A series of incidents involving opposing factions from the Woodchurch and Beechwood estates also saw a man savagely beaten in the street only the day beforehand by Kieran Salkeld and Jake Duffy, who were said to have been the alleged targets of the December 24 incident.
Connor Chapman today went on trial at Liverpool Crown Court charged with Ms Edwards' murder. Nigel Power KC, prosecuting, told the court during his opening that the 26-year-old's fatal shooting came against a background of a "history of trouble in the Wirral, predominantly between rival groups from the Woodchurch estates and the Ford estates".
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The alleged gunman was handed injunctions in October and November last year banning him from associating with others - including Salkeld, Duffy and Sam Searson - and prohibited him from entering part of Woodchurch. Chapman, of Houghton Road, was then said to have been involved in a burglary on Thirlmere Avenue in Noctorum on November 28 alongside fellow Woodchurch men Mason Smith and Curtis Byrne.
Five days later on December 3, the latter was shot on Orretts Meadow Road by an unidentified assailant. The glock gun used in this attack was subsequently used to shoot Kieran Cowley, also identified as a member of the Woodchurch set, on Newark Close in Noctorum on December 18.
Mr Power said that a stolen Ford Kuga which had been present at the scene was found burnt out in the early hours of the following day. Two days before the shooting, Duffy had been seen inside this same vehicle.
On December 23, the day before the Lighthouse pub shooting, Searson was seriously assaulted by Duffy and Salkeld - both of whom were said to be from Beechwood, also known as the Ford Estate - in Rock Ferry. Ring doorbell footage which captured this attack, and was played to the jury, showed him riding a bike before two males jumped out of a car and begin raining down a flurry of punches of kicks in the front yard of a house on a terraced street.
A woman could be heard screaming "leave him, just stop it" as he was set upon. One of the two assailants was then heard to respond: "Mind your own business, he's a little ken robber."
Then, shortly before midnight on December 24, Ms Edwards was stood outside the pub in Wallasey Village smoking a cigarette when she was shot twice in the head by a killer who had been loitering in the vicinity for nearly three hours. Five men, including Duffy and Salkeld, were also injured after being hit by some of the total of 12 bullets which were fired.
Mr Power told the jury: “What otherwise might have been viewed as a random or inexplicable shooting of a wholly innocent woman, Elle Edwards, was in fact the culmination of an ongoing feud between people from the Woodchurch Estate and people from the Ford Estate - which included Jake Duffy and Kieran Salkeld, who were the intended victims of the shooting."
Chapman denies murdering Ms Edwards, the attempted murder of Duffy and Salkeld, wounding with intent against fellow casualties Liam Carr, Harry Loughran and Nicholas Speed and possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life. The 23-year-old has pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods in relation to a Mercedes A Class which was used by the perpetrator and was later burnt out in the Frodsham area on New Year's Eve.
His "associate" Thomas Waring, was said to have kept the firearm after Chapman visited his home on Private Drive in Barnston in the aftermath of the shooting and also helped to torch the car. The 20-year-old appeared alongside him in the dock after pleading not guilty to possession of a prohibited weapon and assisting an offender.
He has admitted failing to comply with a disclosure notice after refusing to provide the pin number to his mobile phone to police. The trial continues, and is expected to last up to four weeks.
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