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".
