The trial of Connor Chapman over the murder of Elle Edwards has continued for a second week at Liverpool Crown Court.
The 26-year-old beautician was shot dead outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village, Wirral, on Christmas Eve last year. Five other men – Kieran Salkeld, Jake Duffy, Harry Loughran, Liam Carr and Nicholas Speed – were also struck by gunfire and injured.
Chapman, of Houghton Road in Woodchurch, denies being the gunman or murdering Elle. The 23-year-old has also pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of Salkeld and Duffy, wounding with intent against Mr Loughran, Mr Carr and Mr Speed and possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
Alongside him in the dock is 20-year-old Thomas Waring, of Private Drive in Barnston, who denies possession of a prohibited weapon and assisting an offender. This is a summary of what was heard during the second week of the trial.
READ MORE: What the jury heard in first week of Elle Edwards murder trial
Day five – Monday, June 19
The jury was told at the start of week two of the trial that Elle suffered multiple injuries during incident, some from the gunshot wounds and others consistent with falling to the ground, as well as the medical intervention she received after the shooting. She sustained two gunshot wounds to the back of her head and one to the shoulder.
Pathologist Dr Paul Johnson told the court that these were caused by three bullets, with one having "just grazed the right shoulder", concluding: "Elle collapsed immediately suffering gunshot wounds.
"Several other individuals nearby also suffered gunshot trauma. Examination of the deceased’s coat revealed gunshot defects through the back of the left side of the collar, and I have already mentioned the linked defects to the right shoulder area."
Dr Johnson was asked if such injuries would have caused a "quick" death. He stated that "it would", adding that it would have been a "unrecoverable situation."
Jurors were then read a statement from Virgina Kerr, who was walking her dogs around Grassy Lane in Frodsham shortly after 1pm on New Year's Day. She said she noticed a car "burned right down to the metal" on the lane.
The Mercedes was recovered by police, and the jury heard on January 16 that PC Lee Birmingham attended an approved police recovery premises to examine a vehicle destroyed by fire. The officer said the husk was identifiable by shape as a newer class of Mercedes while stamped ink number was still visible on the chassis, which identified its true registration number and model.
Nigel Power KC, prosecuting, described a journey made by the vehicle in convoy with another silver car, also a Mercedes, on New Year's Eve. He told the jury that Chapman accepts he had access to the black Mercedes for around three months before the shooting, and that he also accepts driving to the remote area in Cheshire to destroy it – however the defendant is expected to claim that another person borrowed the vehicle on the night Elle was killed.
CCTV was played showing him arriving on foot at the Horse and Jockey pub in Upton at 7.26pm on New Year's Eve, where he collected the grey Mercedes GLC from a man who cannot be named for legal reasons. Camera and automatic number plate recognition technology then tracked his movements, first driving to Private Drive in Barnston – where the gunman parked the stolen Mercedes A Class after the shooting.
Waring lives on this street and is accused of travelling with Chapman from his home to Frodsham, which he denies. Footage showed the GLC, which was fitted with false number plates, at the A Class "travelling in convoy" towards Cheshire.
Mr Power said analysis of mobile phone cell site data showed that two handsets attributed to both Chapman and Waring appeared to travel with the vehicles, although the latter denies he was using that phone at the time. CCTV from the Grassy Lane area showed a white flash in the distance, caused by the torching of the A Class.
The other Mercedes was then driven back to Chapman's home address in Houghton Road in Woodchurch. It would be picked up on the afternoon of January 1 by the same man who met Chapman at the Horse and Jockey pub.
Jurors also heard the contents of a prepared statement given by Chapman after his arrest on suspicion of Elle's murder on January 10. Chapman declined to answer questions directly but, via his solicitor, told detectives he was at home at the time of the shooting.
In the statement, read to the jury by prosecution junior Katy Appleton, he said: "I am not responsible for the shootings of those individuals. I am not the driver or the occupant of the Mercedes on the December 24.
"I was not present at the scene. I did not do anything to assist or encourage those responsible."
Chapman added: "An associate attended at Houghton Road, he used the Mercedes and I gave him the key. He had also been a frequent driver of the car, so I didn't question it."
The jury has heard Chapman did not hand himself in, despite being told he was wanted by a police sergeant, Alan O'Shaughnessy, during a phone call on New Year's Day. Addressing why he did not attend a police station until his arrest, he said: "The officer advised me to get home, he said he would get the police to collect me and bring me back to the house.
"He didn't say or indicate I was going to be arrested. He didn't say anything about attending the police station.
"In recent years, I have felt targeted by the police. I didn't want to go and speak to them."
Chapman claimed he was shocked by news of the shooting, and referred to a Facebook post he wrote about the incident. He said: "When I heard about what happened from the news and social media, I was as disgusted as anyone by it. Whatever has been cause of it, it needs to stop and I wrote a public Facebook post on January 12 – these were my attempts to diffuse whatever situation had escalated."
The jury heard that Chapman did not answer questions about what he had included in his statement. However, when detectives suggested the person who borrowed the Mercedes on December 24 may be the murderer, he responded: "Is that not a good enough reason for me not to give his name?
"What that person is capable of? I would say it is."
Day six – Tuesday, June 20
The jury heard evidence from firearms examination scientist Andre De Villiers Horne, who arrived in court with a Skorpion sub-machine gun of the model used in the shooting. He told the court that the fireram has three firing modes – a safe mode in which it cannot be fired, a single-shot mode and a fully automatic mode.
If the gun is in full auto mode, it continuously fires until the shooter releases the trigger or it runs out of bullets. Mr Horne said: "It will fire a volley of shots, we’re talking 14 to 15 rounds per second.
"If you don’t let go, before you can sneeze you will have emptied the magazine. On single shot, you will have to pull the trigger for every time you fire."
Mr Power played footage of the shooting to the jury. Mr Horne told the jury that, based on the way the shooter fired, he concluded it was set to single-shot mode.
On the footage, the gunman steps out from the side of the pub and holds the weapon in both hands with his arms fully extended. Mr Power suggested that audio evidenced the gunman fired seven shots followed by a "brief pause", followed by another two shots, a second pause and then three shots – with which the witness agreed.
The prosecutor asked: "Seeing that footage and listening to that soundtrack, why was it that you were able to determine the mode in which the gun had been set?”
Mr Horne replied: “If the gun had been set to automatic fire at a rate of 14, 15 rounds per second, that would have been much faster than that. It’s also more difficult to control.
“In order to fire single shots you really need to put it on single shot mode. If we look at the duration, it leads me to believe they were fired individually."
Forensic scientist John Cullen then described how a mixed DNA profile containing contributions from at least two individuals was found on one bullet casing discovered in the Lighthouse's car park by crime scene investigators. It was subsequently found that it would be "approximately 15,000 times more likely if the DNA had originated from Connor Chapman and one unknown individual, rather than two unknown individuals".
The jury heard there was a possibility that a third profile was present in the DNA mix, in which case it was "14,000 times more likely that the DNA detected originated from Mr Chapman and two unknowns, rather than from three unknowns". Mr Cullen told the court: "There was very strong support that some of the DNA in that mixture had originated from Mr Chapman rather than none of the DNA had originated from him."
However, it could not be established how this DNA had been transferred to the casing. Mr Cullen stated that the "potential for an indirect transfer of DNA was a possibility".
Another expert witness, Dr Mandy Wood, gave evidence concerning a red glove which was discovered when police searched the home of Chapman's co-defendant, 20-year-old Thomas Waring, 34 days after the incident. The trial has previously heard that the gunman had been wearing a red glove at the time of the shooting.
Addressing the jury via video link, Dr Wood said one particle of type one gunshot residue (GSR) – said to be among the most common forms of GSR – was found on the back of the item. However, this did not "help to establish" whether the glove had been worn by the Lighthouse pub shooter.
Dr Wood described her findings as being "neutral", adding: "Because of the time delay to when the glove was recovered, I’m not able to determine whether or not it had been worn by the firer. Because a single particle can be acquired indirectly, we generally regard a single particle as having little significance."
Mr Cullen too was asked about the glove. A "mixed DNA profile" was found on the garment, with contributions "from at least four individuals".
It was concluded that there was “extremely strong support" that DNA from both Chapman and Waring was present. Mr Cullen agreed that the findings were as "to be expected if those individuals had worn the glove at some time".
Day seven – Wednesday, June 21
The trial did not sit today after a juror fell unwell, Mr Justice Goose, who is presiding over the trial, told the court in the absence of the jury: "I understand one of the jurors is unwell, ringing in this morning having suffered sickness.
"We can’t continue without all of them together. These things can happen in a trial, it’s unfortunate but it does happen from time to time.
"It’s to be hoped that jury member feels better during the day. We can’t continue any further."
The judge then addressed Ms Edwards' family in the the public gallery, adding: "I’m sorry ladies and gentlemen, it can be frustrating but it’s part of life. We will adjourn to come back tomorrow at 10am."
Day eight – Thursday, June 22
Mr Power called a cell site analysis expert, Duncan Brown, and the Merseyside Police investigation team's telephone liaison officer, Detective Constable Craig Mitchell, to give evidence. The jury heard one of three phones attributed to Chapman and one of two phones attributed to Waring were both connecting to mobile phone antennas covering the area where the Mercedes was set alight.
Both phones were also plotted making the journey from Private Drive to the Grassy Lane site and back again. The dispute between the prosecution and Waring's legal team, the jury heard, was whether Waring travelled with his phone.
William England, defending Waring, cross-examined DC Mitchell about what the phone data and accompanying CCTV evidence revealed. He asked: "You don’t have any footage of Thomas Waring on December 31 travelling to the burnout site of the Mercedes do you?
"You don’t have any photographs of Thomas Waring in a car on the way to the burnout site do you? You don’t have the advantage of any material that could identify Thomas Waring at all in terms of December 31 and going to the burnout site?"
DC Mitchell agreed that was correct. However Mr Power, also questioning the witness, asked him to confirm that the stolen Mercedes A-Class, had been driven from the area of Private Drive, where Waring lived, to the Frodsham area, and then that the other car in the convoy, the Mercedes GLC, returned to the Private Drive area after the burnout.
Mr Power said: "We can’t be absolutely precise about when those two cars set off. At or about the time they set off, who was in contact with the Thomas Waring 2 phone?”
DC Mitchell replied: “Connor Chapman."
The jury also heard Waring's "number one" phone sent a text shortly before the convoy left for Frodsham, then made a call shortly after the Mercedes GLC returned alone – with cell site expert Mr Brown saying there was "nothing to suggest there was active use" in between. This iPhone was later recovered in his bedroom upon his arrest on January 26, although he refused to provide the passcode.
His second phone number, meanwhile, was last used during an incoming call on the evening of January 12. Mr Power said this came “about five minutes after Chapman had been charged with murder”.
Day nine – Friday, June 23
Jurors heard evidence from image reporting analyst Tessa Macklam. As part of the investigation, she was tasked with comparing clothes and footwear the shooter was seen wearing on CCTV and those worn by Chapman in other clips.
Her analysis revealed points of comparison between Cashman's trainers, as seen in a video captured at the Shell garage in Gayton on December 23 and police body worn cameras in a McDonald's car park the previous month, and those worn by the man who is said to be the killer – shown in footage from Private Drive in Barnston in the early hours of Christmas Day. Ms Macklam told the jury: "When comparing the footage from the unknown gunman to the petrol station, the footwear is more probable that it has features of similarity in design."
The witness also noted similarities in the trousers worn in these same clips. She added: "Due to the markers and observations seen, the trousers in the petrol station are slightly more probable to be the same in style and design as the unknown gunman footage."
CCTV from Private Drive, where the murderer is alleged to have fled to following the shooting, showed a figure seemingly removing a head covering to reveal their long hair underneath at the same moment a gun appears to drop from their pocket and onto the pavement. Ms Macklam said that it was "more probable" that the unknown subject’s clothing was of a similar style and design to Chapman’s as seen in other footage.
Further comparisons were made in relation to a Berghaus top he was shown wearing on cameras at the Pandora and Ryman stores at the Arndale Centre in Manchester earlier on Christmas Eve. Similarities were further noted in trousers the defendant was seen sporting near to his home.
"Telematics expert" Dr Raymond Ford also gave evidence in relation to the sim card fitted to the stolen Mercedes used in the shooting and Chapman's iPhone, although it was "not possible to determine" from mobile data and Wi-Fi records whether this had been used to watched YouTube at the time of the shooting as he claims he was doing. The trial continues, and is due to continue for a third week on Monday.