Stolen car used in pub shooting burnt out a week later, court hears

Connor Chapman denies murdering Elle Edwards on Christmas Eve last year.

Elle Edwards died last Christmas Eve (Family handout/PA) (PA Media)

A stolen car used in a shooting which killed a 26-year-old woman was burnt out a week later by the man accused of her murder, a court has heard.

The black Mercedes A Class is alleged to have been used by Connor Chapman, 23, on Christmas Eve last year when Elle Edwards was killed by a gunman who opened fire with a Skorpion sub-machine outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village, Wirral, Merseyside.

On Monday, a jury at Liverpool Crown Court was shown footage of the stolen Mercedes travelling in a convoy with another Mercedes vehicle, both with false registration plates, from Wirral to Frodsham, Cheshire, on New Year’s Eve.

Nigel Power KC, prosecuting, said cell site data showed the phones of Chapman and co-defendant Thomas Waring appearing to move with the cars as they travelled.

The jury has been told Chapman accepts he was involved in burning out the car but Waring denies a charge of assisting an offender and claims he was separated from his mobile phone at the time.

Footage played in court showed the car on fire at Grassy Lane just after 10pm.

Detective Constable Steve Duke said the vehicle was set alight in an area near the M56 motorway.

He said: “It’s a very secluded place with high banks, so it is very concealed.”

The car was found by a dog walker the following day and identified by its chassis number, the court heard.

Home Office pathologist Christopher Johnson said Ms Edwards was hit by three bullets in the shooting.

The court heard there were two gunshot entry wounds to the back of her head, as well as a graze to her shoulder where a bullet had gone through her coat.

Dr Johnson said one of the injuries to her head was “irrecoverable”.

The court heard the two men said to be the intended targets of the attack, Jake Duffy and Kieran Salkeld, were both taken to Aintree University Hospital following the shooting.

A bullet was recovered from Mr Salkeld’s chest and, after surgery and time in the intensive care and major trauma units, he was discharged on January 7, the jury heard.

Mr Duffy had surgery for wounds to his thighs and was discharged from hospital on December 27.

The court was told on December 30 a booking was made for Connor Chapman to travel on a ferry from Portsmouth to Santander in Spain on January 2, but it was later cancelled.

The jury was told Chapman was arrested in a Tesco store in Newtown, North Wales, on January 10 and told officers: “It wasn’t me.”

He answered no comment in police interviews but gave a prepared statement in which he said he was at home in Houghton Road, Woodchurch, at the time of the shooting.

He said he spoke to police on the phone on New Year’s Day, when they searched his grandparents’ house, and claimed an officer said he wanted to speak to him over a serious matter, but did not mention it was murder.

He said: “In recent years, I have felt targeted by the police and I didn’t want to go and speak to them.”

The shooting is alleged to have been the culmination of a feud between a group of people on the Woodchurch and Beechwood estates, on either side of the M53 motorway in Wirral.

Chapman denies the murder of Ms Edwards, two counts of attempted murder and three counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

He also denies possession of a Skorpion sub-machine gun with intent to endanger life and possession of ammunition with intent to endanger life.

Waring, 20, of Private Drive, Barnston, Wirral, denies possessing a prohibited weapon and assisting an offender by helping Chapman to dispose of the car.

The trial is expected to last three to four weeks.