‘This isn’t Grand Theft Auto, this is real life’: Heartbroken father of innocent Elle Edwards says he hopes his daughter’s killer ‘rots in hell’ ahead of sentencing today
- Connor Chapman, 23, killed Elle Edwards, 26, on the Wirral on Christmas Eve
- Victim’s father Tim Edwards called Chapman a ‘coward’ in court yesterday
The heartbroken father of innocent murdered beautician Elle Edwards has said he hopes her killer ‘rots in hell’ ahead of his sentencing hearing today.
Elle Edwards, 26, was killed when Connor Chapman, 23, fired 12 shots from a Skorpion pistol into a group of people outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey on the Wirral in Merseyside shortly before midnight on Christmas Eve last year.
Chapman 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.
The gunman was convicted of Miss Edwards’s murder, and seven other counts, following a three-and-a-half week trial at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday.
Miss Edwards’s father Tim Edwards stared at Chapman as the verdicts were returned, after three hours and 48 minutes of deliberations, and when he was taken from the dock said: ‘You coward.’
Tim Edwards, father of Elle Edwards, has said he hopes her killer Connor Chapman ‘rots in hell’
Tim Edwards, pictured with his daughter Elle Edwards who was murdered on Christmas Eve
Elle Edwards, 26, was killed outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village in Merseyside
Connor Chapman, 23, opened fire with a Skorpion sub-machine gun outside the pub last year
Miss Edwards’s father Tim outside Liverpool Crown Court after the guilty verdict yesterday
Today, Mr Edwards told BBC Breakfast: ‘I can’t begin to understand where someone’s mind… He says ‘I’ll get in a car, I want to drive to a pub full of people with a machine gun and I want to open it up and I want to fire it into that pub.
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‘Who has that thought? Oh, and then thinks he’s getting away with it? This is not a GTA, what is it, Grand Theft Auto. This is real life. So that thing who pulled the trigger, I hope he rots in hell.’
He added that he had turned to alcohol to cope following her death, adding: ‘I’ve done that, bottle of whisky every day. And that adds its own problems.’
Mr Edwards also told of the moment that he learned what had happened to his daughter, saying: ‘It was my son, woke me up at about 3 o’clock in the morning, something like that. I knew, straight away, that something was seriously wrong.’
He also spoke about the impact on others who were involved in the incident.
Mr Edwards said: ‘That’s the other side isn’t it, of all of this, the other people. As a family we all suffer, always will forever. But there’s other people that were there, trying to help Elle, and they are going to suffer.
‘So my heart goes out to those people, it really does. I’d love to wave a magic wand and make their lives better. Because, again, they don’t deserve to go through it.’
As part of the BBC interview, before the trial they travelled with Mr Edwards back to Greece, which is where he had been on holiday with Miss Edwards and her sister Lucy six months before the shooting. He visited a cove where they swam and restaurants where they had eaten.
Tim Edwards, father of Elle Edwards, with members of his family including his mother (left) outside Liverpool Crown Court yesterday after Chapman was found guilty of murder
Miss Edwards died after choosing to step outside for a cigarette just before midnight
A file photo of a Skorpion sub-machine gun, similar to that used in the Christmas Eve shooting
The car used in the shooting was found burnt out in Frodsham, Cheshire, on New Year’s Day
He also praised Miss Edwards, saying: ‘Working hard, she was a good example to people. She was very good at picking people up. She’d set her own goals and she was achieving them and she was flying. And she did it with a smile on her face.’
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Speaking outside court yesterday after the verdicts, Mr Edwards also 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.’
Chapman will be sentenced this afternoon for her murder.
Yesterday, Mr Justice Goose told the court he would consider imposing a whole life order.
The jury convicted Chapman of murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, as well as possession of a Skorpion sub-machine gun with intent to endanger life and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
He pleaded guilty before the trial to a charge of handling stolen goods and admitted going to burn out the car used in the shooting on December 31.
Co-defendant Thomas Waring, 20, whose house Chapman went to following the shooting, was convicted of possession of a prohibited firearm and assisting an offender, by helping to burn out the Mercedes.
He pleaded guilty before trial to a charge of failing to comply with a disclosure notice.
Tim Edwards (centre) at his daughter’s funeral at St Nicholas’s Church in Wallasey in January
Flowers and tribute messages were left outside the Lighthouse pub following the shooting
Thomas Waring (pictured) also faces a lengthy term after he was found guilty of possessing an offensive weapon and assisting an offender
The trial heard the attack was the culmination of a feud between groups on the Woodchurch and Beechwood estates, on either side of the M53 in Wirral.
READ MORE Innocent Elle Edwards’ final moments: Beautician laughs and hugs friends as she celebrates Christmas Eve before she was shot dead in pub beer garden – as her heartbroken father says he hopes gangland killer found guilty of her murder ‘rots in hell’
The prosecution alleged Chapman was attempting to kill Salkeld and Duffy, both of whom were seriously injured in the shooting.
The pair, from the Beechwood estate, had attacked another man, Sam Searson, in the street the day before, the court heard.
Three other men: Harry Loughran, Liam Carr and Nicholas Speed; who were unconnected to the feud, were also injured in the shooting.
The jury heard Chapman lay in wait outside the pub in a stolen Mercedes for almost three hours before firing the weapon, which the court heard was capable of firing 15 rounds a second.
Chapman told the jury he had not been using the vehicle, which he described as a ‘pool car’ for him and other criminals, on the night of the murder but had given the car key to another man, whom he refused to name.
CCTV footage showed the gunman drive away from the Lighthouse in the moments after the shooting and then arrive at Private Drive in Barnston, the home address of co-defendant Waring.
The man, with long hair, was seen in the footage appearing to drop the gun as he walked towards Waring’s home.
Chapman admitted a charge of handling stolen goods before the trial started and told the jury on December 31 he had travelled with the unnamed man who took the car key when the Mercedes was burnt out in Frodsham, Cheshire.
He denied that Waring had been with him, although cell site evidence showed Waring’s phone travelled with the car.
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