Elle Edwards: Two years on from tragic Christmas Eve murder of innocent Wirral beautician

Two years ago, on Christmas Eve, Elle Edwards was shot dead outside the Lighthouse Inn in Wallasey Village.

The 26-year-old beautician was celebrating the festive period with her friends and family and was an innocent bystander in a ‘gang revenge’ shooting outside the pub, when Connor Chapman opened fire with a Skorpion sub-machine gun on a crowd of people just before midnight.

Chapman, 22, had been involved in an ongoing series of disputes between rival gangs from the Woodchurch and Ford estates on the Wirral and plotted to gun down Kieran Salkeld and Jake Duffy.

He fired 12 bullets into a crowd outside the Lighthouse, seriously injuring the pair and killing Ms Edwards, who was hit twice in the head and once in the shoulder. The murder shocked the nation.

- Elle Edwards documentary - Part 1: “The lowest of the low”

After the shooting, Connor Chapman fled the scene in the car and drove to friend Thomas Waring’s house, where CCTV showed Chapman, with distinctive long hair, appearing to drop the gun on the pavement as he walked towards the address.

In July 2023, Chapman was jailed for life with a minimum term of 48 years for Elle’s murder - one of the longest sentences in UK history for a single murder - and Waring, now 21, was convicted of possession of a prohibited firearm and assisting an offender and sentenced to nine years in prison.

In November this year, Elle’s father, Tim Edwards vowed to keep making a noise” and “stop scumbags who have been involved in serious violence/murder” from being released early, after being told Waring would be part of an early release scheme.

The Elle Edwards Foundation continues to raise awareness about and gun and knife crime, and ensure Elle’s name will never be forgotten

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