A thug who killed an innocent beautician after opening fire on a packed beer garden on Christmas Eve as part of a gang feud faces decades in jail after being today convicted of her murder.
Elle Edwards, 26, was shot twice in the head after balaclava-clad Connor Chapman, 22, blasted a crowd outside The Lighthouse pub, Wallasey, Wirral.
There were shouts of ‘yes’ from Ms Edwards’ family as Chapman was found guilty by the jury of seven women and five men after three hours’ deliberations.
Tragically, Miss Edwards died after chose to step outside for a cigarette just before midnight with five other men – two of whom, Kieran Salkeld and Jake Duffy, were Chapman’s ‘intended targets’, said prosecutor Nigel Power, K.C..
Drug dealer and father of two Chapman – who faces a mandatory life sentence- had been loitering outside the pub, waiting for the pair for nearly three hours.
Elle Edwards, 26, was shot dead outside a pub on Christmas Eve in Wallasey Village, Wirral
Connor Chapman, 23, opened fire with a Skorpion sub-machine gun outside the Lighthouse
The judge, Mr Justice Goose condemned the ‘shocking violence’ in the case as he adjourned sentencing until tomorrow.
Ms Edwards’ father, Tim, today said the conviction meant the family could start going forward.
He said: ‘It just means he’s 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.’
The trial of Chapman, accused of Miss Edwards’ murder, and accomplice, Thomas Waring, took place over just under three weeks at Liverpool Crown Court.
CCTV footage from last December 24 was played to jurors showing the gunman, identified as Chapman by Mr Power, creeping up then running out from around a corner outside The Lighthouse brandishing the weapon.
Shots could be heard and a man fell to the floor followed by Miss Edwards. The four other men were also injured.
Opening the case last month, Mr Power said: ‘Elle Edwards was with her friends for what was supposed to be an enjoyable night out.
‘(Chapman’s) intended targets were Jake Duffy and Kieran Salkeld. Although they were injured, Elle Edwards, a wholly innocent bystander, was killed by two bullets which entered the back and left side of her head.’
‘The gunman was using a Skorpion sub-machine gun, a Czech firearm designed for the security services and army’.
Miss Edwards, a 26-year-old beautician, was shot dead at The Lighthouse pub in Wallasey, Wirral, on Christmas Eve
Mr Power said the fatal shooting was ‘the culmination of an ongoing feud involving people from the Wirral’s Woodchurch and Ford estates’.
The court heard Duffy, 22, and Salkeld, 28, had carried out a ‘vicious attack’ on another man, Sam Searson, the previous day.
There were also two shootings involving a Glock pistol, while jurors heard Chapman was subject of gangland injunctions restricting his movements.
The court heard Chapman – who had been ‘casing’ The Lighthouse for three hours – fled in a stolen Mercedes A Class car, driving to the home of his ‘friend’, Thomas Waring, then 20.
Chapman remained there for four hours before taking a taxi back to his home on the Woodchurch estate, Birkenhead, it was claimed.
The Mercedes remained parked near Waring’s home in Barnston, Wirral, until December 31, when it was driven to an isolated site in Frodsham, Cheshire, and burned out, jurors were told.
The court heard the car allegedly used by Chapman – stolen from Chorley, Lancashire, last September – contained a SIM card allowing its movements to be tracked.
A file photo of a Skorpion sub-machine gun
These ‘correlated’ with the location of a phone owned by Chapman between September and December 25, Mr Power said.
The Mercedes had been parked close to Chapman’s home before being driven to the Lighthouse pub.
A CCTV camera showed a figure ‘appearing to duck’ as he headed from Chapman’s home towards the vehicle to make the short journey.
‘Who was it who came out of Connor Chapman’s house, got into the stolen car which Connor Chapman had been driving for three months and drove it to the scene of the murder?’ Mr Power asked.
Before the Mercedes set off at 8.45pm, the court heard Chapman had received a ‘flurry of calls’ to his mobile phone.
He left his phone at home before driving from Woodchurch towards Wallasey, the court was told.
The car was then seen in ‘a variety of positions’ around The Lighthouse, moving to a space with plenty of room for a quick getaway, Mr Power said.
Telephone data from days later also put Chapman and Waring in the area where the car was burnt out on December 31, Mr Power said.
DNA partially-matching Chapman’s was found on a bullet casing at the scene of the shooting but the Skorpion has never been recovered, he added.
The court heard one of Chapman’s friends booked him on a ferry from Portsmouth to Santander – but the alleged killer later cancelled the booking after realising police were looking for him.
Instead, he and his girlfriend stopped using their main phones and booked a ‘prosecco and petals’ romantic stay in Wales, where he was arrested days later, Mr Power said.
Chapman, wearing his hair tied back in a ‘man bun’, was convicted of murdering Miss Edwards, attempting to murder Duffy and Salkeld, and wounding with intent against Harry Loughran, Nicholas Speed and Liam Carr – the other men shot and injured.
He was also convicted of possessing a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
Waring also faces a lengthy term after he was found guilty of possessing an offensive weapon and assisting an offender.
Both denied all charges.
