Elle Edwards: One year on from the tragic murder of innocent Wirral beautician

On Christmas Eve last year, 26-year-old Elle Edwards was shot dead outside The Lighthouse Inn in Wallasey Village.

Celebrating the festive period with her friends and family, the beautician 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.

Twelve shots were fired. Ms Edwards was hit twice in the head, once in the shoulder and died almost instantly. Intended targets Kieran Salkeld and Jake Duffy were also hit, but survived.

Earlier this year, Chapman was for life with a minimum term of 48 years for murder and his accomplice, Thomas Waring was jailed for nine years for helping Chapman destory a stolen Mercedes used in the shooting.

This week, four more people have been charged in connection with Ms Edwards' murder, including a 42 year-old man from the Wallasey area charged with assisting an offender, a 33-year-old woman from the Woodchurch area charged with assisting an offender, a 54-year-old man from the Woodchurch area charged with assisting an offender and a 33-year-old woman from the Birkenhead area charged with two counts of assisting an offender.

All four have been bailed and will appear at Wirral magistrates court on Monday, January 15.

'Total disrespect to my Elle'

The Lighthouse Inn will remain open on Christmas Eve but say they will close early out of respect for Elle and her family. However, Elle's father is urging people to boycott the venue.

In a statement on Facebook, The Lighthouse Inn said: "After much deliberation we have decided that we will open on Christmas Eve – but we will close earlier than normal and we will be respectfully asking people to depart the premises by 11pm, with last orders at 10.30pm.

"We hope you understand that we don’t want to remain open this year at the same time as when last year’s tragic events unfolded. We will all be taking that time this year to remember Elle and our decision is something that we have discussed already with members of her family."

Elle's father, Tim Edwards, has spoken out against the pub, claiming that he was never contacted by the Lighthouse about their decision to open on Christmas Eve.

Commenting on Facebook, Mr Edwards said: "This place should be boycotted let it be known this dump has not contacted me about anything this year, and certainly not about Christmas Eve. Pure greed and total disrespect to my Elle and her family. If anyone wants to show respect to Elle they would never set foot in that dump ever again."