Four cleared of helping Elle Edwards' killer
Two men and two women who were accused of helping the gunman who murdered Elle Edwards have been found not guilty of assisting an offender.
Connor Chapman fired a sub-machine gun outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village in Wirral, as part of a gang feud on Christmas Eve 2022.
Ms Edwards, 26, an innocent bystander, was killed and five men were injured.
Jurors at Liverpool Crown Court cleared Roxanne Matthews, Danielle Dowdall, David Chambers and Paul Owen of helping Chapman avoid arrest and hide evidence after a four-week trial.
Ms Dowdall and Ms Matthews sobbed and hugged in the dock after the jury returned its verdicts after six hours and 20 minutes of deliberations.
Ms Dowdall, 34, was accused of taking in Chapman's clothes, which were in a Santa themed bag, after the shooting.
However, she told the court the drug dealer had given her the bag, which also contained jewellery, before the shooting.
She told the court: "I know they were no part of that girl's poor loss of life."
Chapman's uncle. Mr Chambers, 43, was accused of collecting the clothes from his nephew's home on Christmas Day and taking them to Ms Dowdall.
He told the court he had been to Chapman's home to collect extra chairs for the family Christmas dinner.
He also denied helping to arrange the gunman's "escape route" by taking co-defendant Ms Matthews, 34, to collect a hire car she had booked for Chapman.
Ms Matthews, 34, was accused of harbouring Chapman at her home in Noctorum.
The mother-of-three told the court she had let him stay after his girlfriend kicked him out because her friend was pregnant with his baby.
She said she had helped Chapman book a holiday lodge in North Wales, where he was arrested on 10 January, because she wanted to help him "make amends" with his partner.
The jury heard Mr Owen, 55, had lent Chapman his car on New Year's Eve 2022, which he used to drive to a remote area in Cheshire and burn out a Mercedes car used in the shooting.
Mr Owen told the court he was a customer of Chapman's and knew him only as Curly.
He said he believed Chapman was driving the car home for him to move it out of the way of a planned fireworks display at the Horse and Jockey pub in Upton, where he was spending the evening.
In July 2023, Chapman was convicted of Ms Edwards' murder and attempting to murder his intended targets and rival gang members Kieran Salkeld and Jake Duffy.
He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 48 years.
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