'Wholly innocent' Elle Edwards shot dead amid 'feud' between rival groups, court told

A 'wholly innocent' woman was shot dead outside a pub on Christmas Eve in the culmination of an 'ongoing feud' between rival groups from two estates, a court has heard.

Elle Edwards, 26, was killed in a shooting outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village, Wirral, Merseyside, on December 24 last year. Connor Chapman, 23, is standing trial accused of murder.

He denies all charges against him. As the trial opened at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday (June 13), jurors were told how Ms Edwards was with friends for an 'enjoyable night out' when, at 11.47pm, she went out for a cigarette and stood with a group of people.

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Footage played to the court showed a man walk round the corner from the car park of the pub and open fire, injuring five people and killing Ms Edwards. He was using a Skorpion sub-machine gun, a Czech firearm designed for the security services and the army, the court heard.

Nigel Power KC, prosecuting said the intended targets of the shooting were Jake Duffy and Kieran Salkeld. He added: “Although they were injured, Elle Edwards, a wholly innocent bystander, was killed by two bullets which entered the back of the left side of her head."

The jury was told after the shooting Chapman drove a stolen Mercedes to the home of his friend and co-defendant Thomas Waring, 20, in Barnston, Wirral. In CCTV footage shown to the court a man, alleged to be Chapman, was seen walking towards Waring’s house.

Mr Power said the man appeared to ruffle his long hair as he walked. He said: “What we suggest is, as the man, who is in the stolen car that had been in the car park, from which the shooting had taken place, as he ruffles his hair he dislodges