Connor Chapman posted a Facebook status calling for people to stop using guns four days after he murdered Elle Edwards in a cowardly attempt to cover his tracks.
The convicted drug dealer, 23, was found guilty last week of murdering Elle in a botched gangland shooting on Christmas Eve last year. Elle, 26, had been enjoying a night out with her sister and friends when she was hit twice in the back of the head outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village.
Five men were also injured, one critically, but all survived. A jury of seven women and five men came to a unanimous decision after three hours and 48 minutes of deliberation, following a three-and-a-half week trial at Liverpool Crown Court. Chapman’s friend Thomas Waring, 20, was convicted of possession of a prohibited weapon, and also assisting an offender by helping Chapman torch the stolen black Mercedes car used to flee the scene.
READ MORE: Connor Chapman guilty of Elle Edwards murder outside busy pub
The court heard career criminal Chapman, described as "at the heart" of the Woodchurch estate organised crime group, lurked outside the busy pub for nearly three hours. Harrowing CCTV footage played in court showed him step around the side of the pub and unleash 12 shots from a military style Skorpion sub-machine pistol. Elle was seen slumping forwards after being hit by two bullets.
Despite being at the heart of the senseless attack that claimed the life of the innocent women, Chapman took to Facebook just four days later in an attempt to cover his tracks. In the Facebook post, dated December 28 2022, Chapman appears to call for people to stop using guns because of the devastating impact it has on communities.
Chapman wrote: "I don't do this Facebook s*** but sometimes someone needs to stand up and get the movement moving. I don't give a f*** what anyone thinks of me posting this, s*** has gone out of hand and no one needs this in their life or for it to happen to their family.
"That's one thing we all have in common, we all have family and this could have been anyone's tragedy. It's not that deep, it's not unstoppable, some real petty s*** going on out here. Let's see who wants to stand up and be a man and make not just your own life but everyone's around you a little easier to live every day.
"Enough is enough, no one needs this s*** in their life, no one's a gangster and no one's bad. It's just f****** stupid and pointless and a waste of life when you are sat in jail looking at 20 years to life. That s*** cuts deep, believe me, innocent or not share and let's see what happens because I know deep down no one wants this and it can be squashed if the right people get involved."
The court heard Chapman's reckless attack was the "culmination" of a violent, tit-for-tat feud between the Woodchurch group and its Wirral rival, a gang based around the Beechwood/Ford estate on the opposite side of the M53 motorway. Two of the men shot on Christmas Eve, Kieran Salkeld and Jake Duffy, were described as involved in the Beechwood gang and are already serving jail sentences for dishing out a savage beating to Woodchurch-linked Sam Searson, the day before the shooting.
Salkeld was the most severely injured of the survivors after Chapman's bullet penetrated his chest causing internal bleeding and organ damage, while Duffy was wounded in both legs. Three other men injured by the volley of bullets; Harry Loughran, Liam Carr and Nicholas Speed, all described as “innocent bystanders”, made quicker recoveries.
Nigel Power, KC, prosecuting, told the court: "That Facebook post by Connor Chapman on December 28 shows that he was the person calling the shots from the Woodchurch side of all of this."
Mr Power later told the jury: "Gun crime often includes criminals shooting at each other. There’s no doubt this is such an event, but of course here, a young, beautiful, unconnected, innocent life was brutally ended as a direct result of the then ongoing, but for now at least paused, gun feud between the Ford Estate and the Woodchurch Estate."
Speaking outside court on Thursday afternoon, Elle's dad Tim called Chapman and Waring "cowards". He 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 those two never see another Christmas again ever in their lives. I've had my eyes on him for four weeks and he has not looked at me once because he's a coward; that's exactly what he is. I couldn't care less about him. I'll never, ever mention his name.
"I hope he rots in hell. It's a big relief because now we can start again. We've been through hell and we deserve now to be given a life back that we had before, which will never be the same. It's now a new chapter, it's a new beginning for our family. It's the worst day, but the best of the worst days."
Chapman was jailed for life with a minimum of 48 years. Waring was jailed for nine years.
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