Elle Edwards’s dad carries coffin as hundreds gather for shooting victim’s funeral
Mourners lined the streets of Liverpool to pay tribute to Elle Edwards who was shot dead in a pub on Christmas Day.
The 26-year-old beautician was not the intended target and four men were also injured at the Lighthouse Inn in Wallasey.
Ms Edwards’ coffin was carried to the church on a horse-drawn carriage, as some mourners lined the streets to watch the procession.
Reverend Jeff Staples said the service, which began at around 12.30pm today heard she ‘laughed and joked and enjoyed’ life.
Pallbearers dressed in black suits were seen taking the coffin inside St Nicholas’s Church on Newport Avenue.
Ms Edwards’ father, Tim Edwards, was seen talking to funeral attendees outside before he helped carry the coffin into the church.
An order of service read: ‘Elle’s family would like to thank relatives, friends and neighbours for the kind expressions of sympathy and support they have received and for your attendance here today.’
Attendees were invited to join the family after the service.
The pub where the beautician was shot closed its doors on Wednesday as a mark of respect, with floral tributes placed outside the entrance.
‘Elle and her family have remained very much in our thoughts over these past few weeks and even more so right now. May she rest in peace,’ The Lighthouse Inn wrote on Facebook.
In an interview with Sky News last week, her father Tim Edwards said: ‘She was beautiful looking and she was a great hugger.
‘She was just a fantastic human being with a heart of gold.’
‘She’s the type of person that would walk into the room and everyone would gravitate towards her because she was always smiling,’ he said.
Mr Staples, who is leading the service, told BBC Radio Merseyside that it was an opportunity to celebrate the beautician’s life.
‘People will be sad coming to the service, but part of the aim… is to say ‘well, actually Elle’s life wasn’t a sad life, it was a good life, it was a happy life, it was a full life’,’ he said.
‘She laughed and joked and enjoyed all the things of life.
‘That’s what we need to communicate so that she’s not defined by what happened.’
Paying tribute her father Mr Edwards, said she was ‘the most beautiful and bright star’.
Connor Chapman, 22, has been charged with murdering Ms Edwards and is due to go on trial on June 7.
He has also been charged with two counts of attempted murder, three counts of unlawful and malicious wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm, possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life, and handling stolen goods.
Merseyside Police Deputy Chief Constable Ian Critchley described the fatal shooting as ‘the most appalling and callous murder’.
He said: ‘To be murdered in the most horrific and brutal way by the most cowardly of actions is quite incomprehensible for us all.’
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