The father of a 26-year-old beautician shot outside a pub on Christmas Eve has said he hopes the gunman will “fade away” after being convicted of her murder.
Tim Edwards said his family could start going forward following the conviction of Connor Chapman, who killed his daughter Elle and injured five others outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village, Wirral, on Christmas Eve last year.
He said: “It just means he’s off the streets, someone else is not going to suffer at the hands of him.
“Unfortunately Elle was his last victim but thankfully she will be the last person he does anything to and he can go fade away. We’ve got justice and we can start going forward then.”
Mr Edwards said the impact of attending Chapman’s trial, during which he and his family had to sit through harrowing CCTV footage showing the moment Elle was shot, was yet to be seen.
Despite his attempts to look the defendant in the eye as he sat in the dock, Mr Edwards said Chapman, who the court heard had been in and out of custody for many years, had avoided eye contact with him.
He said: “He’s a scumbag, isn’t he? An absolute scumbag. No remorse, not one ounce, not one sign of regret for what he’s done. If anything, arrogant to actually believe he can pull the wool over people’s eyes and get away with it.”
The jury in Chapman’s trial heard the shooting, carried out with a Skorpion sub-machine gun, was the culmination of a feud between criminals on the Woodchurch estate, where Chapman lived, and the nearby Beechwood estate.
For Mr Edwards, news of the feud did not come as a surprise.
He said: “Feuds have happened forever but it’s always been, in the past I suppose, dealt with by fist fights or groups going at each other in a pub or whatever, but now it’s come to the point where they’re shooting each other.
“It’s not really a surprise but it’s surprising the manner that it’s resulted in the death of my daughter who had nothing to do with any of it and she’s in a pub on Christmas Eve doing what any young girl should be doing, having a drink, having a good time, waiting to go and spend her Christmas with her family and some scumbag walks in and thinks he can open fire on a pub on Christmas Eve.
“I can’t get my head around where that thought process comes from.”
Following the trial, Mr Edwards hopes for a “new future” in which Ms Edwards can leave a positive legacy.
He said: “She was a caring person, she would give more of her time to other people than she did to herself. If she can be remembered for that and for her warmth and her young 26-year-old happy-go-lucky life that she was living.”
Work is under way to set up a foundation in her name which can help others.
“I’m going to focus more on it and hopefully come up with an end goal of what we’re going to try and achieve in Elle’s name,” he said.
“We’ll figure that out soon enough, she’ll tell us which way to go with it.”
