Four people deny helping gunman who shot dead innocent Elle Edwards, 26, outside pub on Christmas Eve
FOUR people today denied helping a gunman who shot dead innocent Elle Edwards outside a pub on Christmas Eve.
The beautician, 26, had stepped outside The Lighthouse in Wallasey Village, Merseyside, when Connor Chapman, 23, opened fire.
Chapman was jailed for life with a minimum of 48 years last July after being convicted of murder.
Four people today appeared at Liverpool Crown Court to deny assisting an offender.
David Chambers 42, Danielle Dowdall, 34, Paul Owen, 54, and Roxanne Matthews, 33, are now set to stand trial on September 2.
Chambers is accused of assisting Chapman bu arranging for the hire of a Volkswagen T-Cross car.
Dowdall allegedly disposed of clothes worn by the gunman while Owen is accused of assisting in disposing of a Mercedes A-Class car used in the shooting.
All four were given conditional bail ahead of a hearing on June 3.
Elle had joined friends for an “enjoyable night out” on Christmas Eve, 2022.
Heartbreaking footage showed her in the pub just moments before the shooting hugging her friends and laughing.
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.
Chapman was also found guilty of two counts of attempted murder, two of wounding with intent and one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
He had pleaded guilty to possession of a sub-machine gun and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
Jailing Chapman, Mr Justice Goose said the shooting was as “wicked as it was shocking”.