‘He could feel my anger’: Elle Edwards’ father tells how he struggled to keep his cool in court just yards from her killer Connor Chapman
- Tim Edwards told GMB that his daughter’s killer could feel his anger in court
- Father of Elle Edwards wears a locket in her memory every day
The father of Elle Edwards has said how he struggled to keep his cool just yards from her killer in court.
Tim Edwards told ITV’s Good Morning Britain how Connor Chapman could ‘feel his anger’ as he walked past him during the trial.
In his first televised interview, he said: ‘He could feel my anger.
‘When he was in the dock he had to walk past me and I had to show my strength and doing what I wanted to do to him, but obviously that was not the right thing to do, but he knew how angry I was.
He revealed that he wears a locket in memory of Elle, to break her link with the killer.
Elle Edwards was killed after drug-dealer Connor Chapman opened fire with a sub-machine gun in Wallasey
Tim Edwards said that his daughter’s killer could ‘feel his anger’ during the trial
Mr Edwards revealed that he wears a locket every day for his daughter
Connor Chapman was sentenced to a minimum of 48 years in prison after being branded a ‘highly dangerous man’
Miss Edwards, 26, was killed when Chapman, a 23-year-old drug dealer, opened fire with a sub-machine gun outside The Lighthouse in Wallasey, Merseyside on Christmas Eve last year.
READ MORE: Family heartbreaking new video of Elle Edwards cuddling her nephew as her father vows his daughter’s killer will ‘never get out’ of prison after he is jailed for 48 years
When asked what was in the locket, he said: ‘Just peace for her.’
Mr Edwards said he stared at his daughter’s killer throughout the case, even ignoring CCTV footage played during the hearing.
He added that he was glad the case was over and that they ‘got the best justice we could’.
‘Now it’s time to put that behind us.’, he said.
But he admitted that he would have wanted Chapman to get a whole life sentence.
Asked if that would have been what he wanted, he said: ‘I think we all did yeah.
‘I think even the judge, if he could have given him a whole life sentence he was prepared to do that.’
In line with convention not to give young offenders whole life sentences, the judge handed Chapman a minimum of 48 years in prison.
While accepting that the judge had ‘given the maximum he possibly could’, Mr Edwards said that the sentence was ‘not nearly enough’.
Tim Edwards leaves Liverpool Crown Court following the guilty verdict on July 6
Police CCTV footage shows the Mercedes Chapman used on the night he opened fire outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey, Merseyside
He declined to mention the name of Miss Edward’s killer himself, saying he didn’t want to ‘feed’ a criminal’s ego.
When asked why, he said: ‘I understand you’ve got to mention the people who do these crimes, because that’s obviously part of the story, but you don’t need to give someone like that air-time.
‘You should concentrate on the victims and the people who have been affected by these things more.
‘He has no part in my life whatsoever so I don’t need to mention his name.’
Mr Edwards said: ‘Elle was a great, fun-loving, normal 26-year-old.
‘She was doing well.
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