Connor Chapman jailed for life for the murder of Elle Edwards in Wallasey
Chapman opened fire with a sub-machine gun outside the Lighthouse Pub on Christmas Eve
Last updated 7th Jul 2023
A gunman who killed a beautician when he opened fire outside a pub on the Wirral on Christmas Eve has been jailed life.
He must serve at least 48 years behind bars before he is considered for parole.
Connor Chapman, 23, was convicted on Thursday after a three-and-a-half week trial at Liverpool Crown Court of the murder of Elle Edwards, 26, who was killed outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village in Wirral, Merseyside, on December 24 last year.
He injured five other people, including his targets Jake Duffy and Kieran Salkeld, when he fired 12 shots from the Skorpion sub-machine gun before driving away from the scene in a stolen Mercedes.
Ms Edwards' family shouted "scumbag" and "rat" as he was jailed.
Mr Justice Goose described the CCTV of the shooting, in which five other people were injured when Chapman fired 12 shots, as "utterly shocking".
He said: "What you did, Connor Chapman, to those six victims, was as wicked as it was shocking.
"You murdered Elle Edwards, bringing an end to her young life."
He added: "Your intention was to murder Jake Duffy and Kieran Salkeld, but you didn't care who else would be killed, that's why you fired all the bullets at the group.
"I'm satisfied that you are a highly dangerous man."
He sentenced Chapman to two concurrent life sentences, with a minimum term of 22 years, for the attempted murder of his intended targets Duffy and Salkeld.
Nigel Power KC, prosecuting, said the murder was the culmination of a gang feud in Wirral, where there had been nine shootings in 2022.
He said Chapman had recorded a rap video while in custody last year after an aggravated burglary at his mother's home.
In the video, he made comments including: "If I make it out of here I'm due to become famous because if you touch one of mine, I'll leave your soul on the pavement."
He also said: "I know I've been a scumbag but I'm proud of that."
He told the court Chapman's brother Lewis had been shot with a Skorpion, although a different weapon to the one which killed Ms Edwards, in August 2022 but refused to co-operate with the police investigation.
Statements from Ms Edwards' father Tim, brother Connor and grandmother Susan were read to the court.
A paragraph from her mother, Gaynor, was included in Mr Edwards' statement in which she said: "First of all I want to know why have you done this, what drove you to do this to my daughter? Since Elle has been gone I have never been the same, I can't accept that she has gone. I still think she'll come home."
Elle's grandmother said: "If I were to die tomorrow, the coroner would write on my death certificate 'cause of death: she died of a broken heart'."
Mark Rhind KC said there was "very little" mitigation and said: "I cannot suggest there is remorse."
He said Chapman had two children, one of whom he had never met, and they would be middle-aged by the time he was released.
Speaking outside court, Mr Edwards said: "Things need to change and we've made a start with that.
"I think, 48 years, if you think of picking up a gun now you should think twice about it."
Co-defendant Thomas Waring was sentenced to nine years for possession of a prohibited weapon, assisting an offender and failing to comply with a disclosure notice.
Chapman was also sentenced for two counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, possession of a Skorpion submachine gun with intent to endanger life and ammunition with intent to endanger life as well as handling stolen goods.
Speaking outside court after the verdicts, Ms Edwards' father Tim said:
"Those two cowards in there decided to drag it out for four weeks, put all these people through that and everyone else around it, involved in the case. I can't thank the police enough for what they did and we got there in the end, the right result.
"I hope them two never see another Christmas again ever in their lives."