Woman ‘hired car and booked holiday lodge for gunman who murdered innocent Elle Edwards outside pub on Christmas Eve’
A GUNMAN who murdered an innocent beautician on Christmas Eve was harboured in the home of a woman who hired a car for him and booked him a holiday lodge, a court heard.
Elle Edwards, 26, had stepped outside The Lighthouse in Wallasey Village, Merseyside when Connor Chapman opened fire.
Roxanne Matthews, David Chambers, Danielle Dowdall and Paul Owen are all accused of assisting Chapman, who was jailed for life with a minimum of 48 years last July.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Ms Matthews was alleged to have harboured Chapman at her home in Noctorum, Wirral, which had a converted loft room.
All four deny assisting Chapman, 24, who was convicted of murder.
The jury was shown footage of the moment Ms Edwards was struck as she stood outside the pub shortly before midnight.
She had stepped outside for a cigarette unaware of the horror lurking in the car park.
Chapman fired a volley of shots from his military-grade Skorpion sub-machine gun in a tit-for-tat gang war.
He blasted “wholly innocent” Elle twice in the back of the head and injured five others, including the intended targets of the shooting.
On January 2 2023, the day after police had spoken to Chapman and urged him to hand himself in, phone records show he messaged Matthews to ask where tissues were, the court heard.
Ms Appleton said: “The prosecution say that Roxanne Matthews is harbouring Connor Chapman at her home address, Ormond Mews, which explains the context of the messages.”
Records also showed Matthews carried out internet searches for news on Ms Edwards’ murder, Ms Appleton said.
The court heard on January 7 Matthews messaged Chapman to ask if he was OK and he replied: “Yeah just got up ha ha. Heavy this ha ha.”
She replied saying “feel awful for you” and told him she would not be long, the court was told.
The court heard Matthews harboured Chapman at her home until January 9, when she booked a stay at the Penllwyn Lodges in Wales.
She hired a car for him, a blue Volkswagen T-cross, and was driven to collect it by Chambers, Chapman’s uncle, the jury was told.
The court heard Chambers also took a bag containing the clothes Chapman had worn at the time of the shooting to Dowdall, who allegedly kept hold of it until January 13 when she took it to the home of Chambers’ then partner.
On the morning after Chapman was charged with murder, on January 12, the court heard that Dowdall’s mother sent her a screenshot of the police press release, to which Dowdall replied: “I know I’m minding his f****** clothes.”
Ms Appleton said later that day Dowdall and her mother decided to steal jewellery, bought by Chapman in Pandora before he carried out the shooting on Christmas Eve, which was inside the bag.
She said: “They obviously thought that they would get away with it but David Chambers discovered what they had done.
“Yet, Danielle Dowdall denied it, messaging David Chambers in February, saying ‘mate I’m not a thief’ and ‘I don’t rob off my own’.”
The court heard Owen was alleged to have given his car to Chapman to use on New Year’s Eve when he and Thomas Waring burnt out the black Mercedes A Class used in the murder.
The court heard he handed over the car at the Horse and Jockey pub in Upton, and later messaged Chapman saying: “Be careful bacon everywhere.”
Ms Appleton said: “The Crown suggest he was warning Chapman of the police presence.”
Dowdall, of Woodchurch, Wirral, denies one count of assisting an offender, Matthews denies three counts of the offence, Chambers, of no fixed abode, denies two counts and Owen, also of Woodchurch, denies one count.
The trial is expected to last four weeks.