Elle Edwards murder documentary - Part 2: “No remorse”

Elle Edwards was, by all accounts, a beautiful, kind, happy 26-year-old who was out enjoying the Christmas festivities on December 24, 2022, when she was gunned down outside a Wirral pub. She was an innocent victim in a gang feud shooting. In the words of her father, Tim, her life was cut short just as she was reaching her peak.

Elle was out with friends at the Lighthouse Pub in Wallasey on Christmas Eve. Her brother Connor said she’d been there the previous year and had such a good time that she wanted to return. She was socialising with a group outside the pub’s entrance. Amongst that group were Kieran Salkeld and Jake Duffy, who were the intended targets of the shooting. Gunman Connor Chapman was involved in an ongoing series of disputes between two rival gangs from the Woodchurch and Ford estates on the Wirral.

Chapman drove a stolen Mercedes with false number plates and parked in the pub car park for almost an hour as he plotted the hit. At 11:52 pm, he got out of the vehicle and walked along the side of the building where he then opened fire at the group using a skorpian submachine gun.

Following the shooting, Chapman drove to his friend Thomas Waring’s home, where he disposed of the gun, which has still not been recovered. Six days after the shooting, the stolen Mercedes was burnt out in a remote area of Frodsham.

After hearing that police wanted to question him, Chapman fled to North Wales. Seventeen days after carrying out the attack, Chapman was arrested at a Tesco in an operation involving plain clothed officers.

During the investigation detectives trawled through more than 1400 hours of CCTV evidence, 1,800 exhibits were seized, over 300 sets of communication data applied for and reviewed, 37 searches were carried out and 30 crime scenes examined.

On July 7, 2023, at Liverpool Crown Court, Chapman was jailed for life to serve a minimum of 48 years - one of the longest sentences in UK history for a single murder.

In our four part series, we look back at the events that led to the murder, the investigation, trial and the devastating impact on the family and wider community.

Watch part 4: Ending the ‘no grass’ culture and gun crime | Watch part 3: “We’ve got justice” | Watch part 2: “No remorse” | Watch part 1: “The lowest of the low” |