Thug who murdered Elle Edwards at Christmas grins in prison weeks into life term

08 August 2023 , 21:12

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A photo of Connor Chapman shared on Instagram shows him grinning from inside his cell (Image: Liverpool Echo WS)

A thug who shot dead a woman at a pub on Christmas Eve has been snapped grinning in his prison cell just weeks into his life sentence.

Evil Connor Chapman, 23, will serve a minimum of 48 years behind bars after callously murdering beautician and dental nurse Elle Edwards, 26, while he lurked outside the Lighthouse pub in Merseyside on December 24 last year. Elle's heartbroken dad Tim Edwards described the image - taken on an illegally smuggled mobile phone - as a "photograph of a coward" before slamming the gangland killer as a "scumbag".

Chapman jailed two weeks ago. He had loitered outside the pub in Wallasey Village for around three hours before firing 12 shots from a Skorpion sub-machine gun at a group of smokers outside the front entrance. He had intended to kill Kieran Salkeld and Jake Duffy, who are both affiliated with a rival gang on Beechwood estate on the opposite side of the M53 in Wirral to his gang on Woodchurch.

Elle was perched on the edge of a raised flower bed with her back to the killer and died almost instantly when she was struck in the head by two bullets.

Elle Edwards was gunned down outside a pub in a gangland shooting (PA)

Elle, 26, was out celebrating on Christmas Eve (Liverpool Echo)

Salkeld and Duffy were seriously wounded but survived, while three innocent bystanders were also hit in the volley of bullets. Chapman then fled the scene and hid out at the home of his associate, Thomas Waring. Waring was jailed for nine years after being found guilty of assisting Chapman to burn out his getaway car and possessing the murder weapon after the shooting.

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Trial judge Mr Justice Goose, sentencing Chapman, said: "You carefully planned a revenge attack in gang rivalry. You had no thought at all for any one else, least of all to innocent people. The risk of all six being murdered by you was as substantial as it was obvious, but you didn’t care."

The Liverpool Echo unearthed the photo uploaded by a private Instagram account showing Chapman, peering out of a cell window, grinning while throwing a 'W' shape sign believed to represent Woodchurch.

Chapman loitered outside the pub for hours before firing 12 shots with a sub machine gun (PA)

One of two captions on the photo reads: "Judge frew [sic] a 48 at him still got smile on his face RN4L love ye brudda", followed by three heart emojis. The second caption reads: "Tryna give us longer than we lived."

The picture is believed to have been posted by another gun thug convicted in relation to a shooting, who cannot be named for legal reasons. Although it is not suggested Chapman had access to the device used to post the photo, he has previously had access to mobile phones in jail.

While on remand awaiting trial for attempted murder in February last year, he recorded a rap video in which he made chilling threats to attack his rivals and "leave your soul on the pavement". Possession of a mobile phone in prison is a criminal offence, but the trade in illicit devices is substantial behind bars. It is not clear when exactly the photo was taken or in what prison.

Floral tributes for Elle outside the Lighthouse Inn (Liverpool Echo)

The Ministry of Justice says it has invested £100 million into the prison service for airport-style security, which it said has already blocked more than 20,000 attempts to smuggle contraband into prisons.

At the sentencing hearing, statements from Elle's family were read in court. Her dad, Tim Edwards, wrote: "As a daughter she was the most caring and beautiful, happy person who would always put others before herself. As a child she was the one who every kid went to for help or maybe just a hug sometimes.

"Her permanent smile would light up any room she entered, lifting the mood instantly. Elle would always greet you with a hug and ask 'how you doing' making sure that you were ok, in reality she gave the best hugs and that was always just enough to lift you if you were having a bad day."

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “We are investigating this incident and urgently working to have these images taken down. We will always push for the toughest punishments for those who break the rules, including additional time behind bars.”

Jonathan Humphries