Four charged in connection with murder over Christmas Eve pub shooting

Four people have been charged in connection with the murder of Elle Edwards, who was killed on Christmas Eve last year when a gunman opened fire outside a Merseyside pub.

Two men and two women have been charged with assisting an offender, and will appear in court next year, Merseyside Police said.

Ms Edwards, a 26-year-old beautician, was hit twice in the back of the head when 12 shots were fired from a Skorpion submachine gun outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village, Wirral, shortly before midnight on December 24 last year.

She was not the intended victim of the attack, and five other people were injured in the shooting.

Merseyside Police said a 42-year-old man from the Wallasey area, and a 33-year-old woman and 54-year-old man from the Woodchurch area of Wirral, were charged on Thursday with assisting an offender.

A 33-year-old woman from the Birkenhead area was charged with two counts of assisting an offender, and all four have been bailed to appear at Wirral Magistrates’ Court on January 15.

The force said: “Reporting restrictions are currently in place which means the four people cannot at this stage be named.”

In July, 23-year-old Connor Chapman was found guilty of murdering Ms Edwards following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court, and was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 48 years.

Mr Justice Goose described the CCTV of the shooting as “utterly shocking” and 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.

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.

Nigel Power KC, prosecuting, said the murder was the culmination of a gang feud in Wirral, where there had been nine shootings in 2022.

Speaking outside court after the guilty verdicts, Ms Edwards’s 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.”