Danielle Dowdall is one of four defendants accused of assisting Connor Chapman following the shooting of Elle Edwards on Christmas Eve 2022
The mum of a woman accused of minding a bag of Connor Chapman’s clothes after Elle Edwards’ murder allegedly messaged her daughter “we having all that jewellery”, a court has heard. Danielle Dowdall is said to have stolen a Pandora bracelet and four charms, brought by Chapman just hours before he fatally shot Ms Edwards, out of the “Santa sack” that she allegedly minded for a number of days at her Woodchurch home.
Ms Edwards was fatally injured when Chapman opened fire with a Skorpion sub-machine gun outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey on Christmas Eve 2022. Chapman was convicted of her murder in July last year and later jailed for life with a minimum term of 48 years. Dowdall is one of four defendants on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of assisting an offender in connection with the fatal shooting.
The prosecution’s case against the four defendants – Dowdall, 34, of Woodchurch, Roxanne Matthews, 34, of Noctorum, David Chambers, 43, of no fixed address and Paul Owen, 50, of Woodchurch – is that they “assisted Connor Chapman in evading arrest, intending to impede his apprehension or prosecution”. The defendants all deny the charges.
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Dowdall is alleged to have “had in her possession and assisted in the disposal of clothes worn by Connor Chapman during the murder of Elle Edwards” between December 24 2022 and January 14 2023. During court proceedings, Katy Appleton, prosecuting, and Merseyside Police Detective Sergeant Peter Cietak took the jury through a timeline of the events before and after the shooting. This included phone contact between Chapman, the four defendants and each other.
The prosecution also showed the jury two conversations that Dowdall had with her mum Michelle on WhatsApp. The court heard that after Chapman was arrested and charged with the murder of Ms Edwards’ Michelle Dowdall sent her daughter a screenshot of a Merseyside Police press release confirming the news.
Ms Appleton said: “How does Danielle Dowdall respond? ‘I know I’m minding his f***ing clothes’. Danielle Dowdall informs her mum that the bag of clothing will ‘be goin out my house today’ and that David Chambers had been knocking at hers the night before to collect the bag of clothing but she was asleep and so she is going to take them to Melissa Mason (Chambers’ then partner) in Rock Ferry.”
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Although some messages were not shown to the jury, others showed Dowdall messaged her mum “Ringing no police no snitch there going out my house today”, the court heard. The jury were told she responded to an unknown message “All I done was help a f***ing mate for getting thrown out, shoot the messenger f***ing hell”.
Messages read in court claim Dowdall spoke again to her mum later the same day. Ms Appleton said WhatsApp messages, which included the spelling and punctuation errors seen below, between the pair showed they decided to steal jewellery which was inside the bag of clothing. Transcripts of the messages between the pair claim Dowdall said “f**inell mall kids jewellery” followed by questions from her mum “so never saw in, U never went in bag”, the jury were told.
The court heard Dowdall said “we’ll might ask an I’m not gettin in s***” to which Michelle Dowdall replied “U no nothing about it U never went in bag”. Dowdall was said to then tell her mum: “Well it’s not in bags it come in so will know” before adding several messages later “just leave it for now or woulda took it meself”.
Ms Appleton said later that evening Michelle Dowdall messaged: “I’m lying on sofa gettin ear infection not feeling good, as far as you no you don’t know what was in bag, we having all that jewellery, we just split up charms so no one knows.”
Earlier this week during the timeline of events before the shooting, the prosecution showed the jury CCTV footage of Chapman, defendant Chambers, who is Chapman’s uncle, Thomas Waring and Chapman’s brothers Lewis and William driving in Chambers’ black BMW from Wirral to Manchester on Christmas Eve 2022. The court heard the men did some Christmas shopping and visited shops including Ryman, JD Sports and Pandora.
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Ms Appleton showed the jury footage of Chapman in Pandora making a purchase of a bracelet and four charms – a sparkling flower charm, a family always charm, a bell charm and a Disney Winnie the Pooh charm – to the price of £210 paid in cash. The court heard officers who attended the store were shown a transaction that matched up to Chapman’s purchase.
The court heard that Dowdall and her mum thought they had got away with the theft, but Chambers, who is alleged to have taken the bag of clothes to her in the first place, discovered what she had done. Ms Appleton said: “Yet, Danielle Dowdall denied it, messaging David Chambers in February, saying ‘mate I’m not a thief’ and ‘I don’t rob off my own’.”
Ms Appleton said Dowdall’s defence case was that she was given the bag of clothing, in a Santa sack, by Chapman before the shooting, when he claimed he had been thrown out by his girlfriend. The court heard during her second interview she admitted taking possession of Chapman’s clothes before returning them to co-defendant Chambers via Ms Mason.
She said she didn’t think anything “dodgy” in this and when asked why he asked her she suggested it was because her address was closest, the jury heard. Ms Appleton added: “She stated it was her mother’s idea to steal the jewellery and after she had done so, panicked and just wanted to give it back.”
Matthews is alleged to have harboured Chapman at her home in Noctorum before she booked him a stay at the Penllwyn Lodges in Wales. She also allegedly hired a car for him, a blue Volkswagen T-cross, and was driven to collect it by Chambers, Ms Appleton said.
Fourth defendant Owen is alleged to have given his car to Chapman to use on New Year’s Eve when he and Waring burnt out the black Mercedes A Class used in the murder. The court heard he handed over the car at the Horse and Jockey pub in Upton, and later messaged Chapman saying: “Be careful bacon everywhere.”
Dowdall, Matthews, Chambers and Owen, who are represented by Desmond Lennon, Martine Snowdon, Daniel Travers and Christopher Stables respectively, deny all charges. The trial before Mr Justice Morris, is expected to last four weeks.
The trial continues.
