Four found not guilty of helping Elle Edwards' killer
They were charged with assisting an offender
Last updated 6th Nov 2024
Four people have been found not guilty of helping the man who killed Elle Edwards outside a Merseyside pub.
Elle died at the age of 26 after being shot by Connor Chapman, who opened fire with a sub-machine gun outside the Lighthouse Pub in Wallasey Village on Christmas Eve in 2022.
Chapman's uncle David Chambers, along with Danielle Dowdall, Roxanne Matthews and Paul Owen, have all been found not guilty of assisting an offender following a four-week trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
Dowdall, 34, of Woodchurch in Wirral, was accused of taking in a bag of Chapman's clothes after the shooting.
Chambers was alleged to have collected clothes from his nephew's home on Christmas Day and of taking them to Dowdall.
He was also accused of taking Matthews, 34, to collect a hire car for Chapman on 9 January.
Matthews was accused of harbouring Chapman at her home in Noctorum, booking a holiday lodge in North Wales for him, and arranging the hire car for him with Dowdall.
Owen, 55, was alleged to have lent his car to Chapman on New Year's Eve.
They broke down in tears and embraced as the verdicts were read out, before the judge allowed them to walk free.
Chapman was jailed for life, with a minimum term of 48 years, for Elle's murder.