A mum accused of harbouring Elle Edwards’ killer has claimed that he was staying at her home because of the row with his partner
A mum accused of harbouring Connor Chapman following the murder of Elle Edwards has told a court that he was staying at her address because he had been kicked out by his girlfriend after getting another woman pregnant. The 26-year-old beautician died after being shot outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey, Wirral, 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. Two men and two women are currently on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of assisting an offender in connection with the fatal shooting.
David Chambers, Danielle Dowdall, Paul Owen and Roxanne Matthews all deny the respective charges against them. The latter began giving evidence to a jury of eight men and four women today, Monday.
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She is accused of booking a hire car and a holiday lodge in Wales for Chapman following the shooting, as well as allowing him to stay at her home on Ormond Mews in Noctorum. However, Matthews claims that she booked the accommodation without any knowledge of his involvement in Ms Edwards’ death and says that he took the vehicle without her consent after she had leased it for her own use.
Under questioning from her counsel Martine Snowdon, the 34-year-old told jurors this afternoon that she had been in contact with the killer over the phone from December 30 onwards because she was intending to source drugs from him as she was “going out to the Arrowe Park for food” on New Year’s Day. She then “met him for cocaine just off Ford Way” in the early evening of January 1 2023, near to his girlfriend Danielle Jones’ house on Houghton Road.
But Matthews reported that, during this meeting, she “told him her friend was pregnant to him”. The mother-of-three said she had heard of the pregnancy, with a woman who she described as her “best mate”, on the morning of January 1 and was “shocked” by the news.
She told the court: “She said she wanted him to know. To be fair to him, he was quite polite. He was reasonable. I think he was a bit shocked himself. I think he said was I joking at first. He was in shock. Then he was just nice about it.”
Matthews stated that Chapman then spoke to her on the phone at around 9.30pm the same day after his partner had reportedly seen messages between him and the pregnant woman and said: “What the f*** is your mate playing at? My girlfriend has seen everything.”
She added: “She told him she was going to kill the baby, just like he’d asked. She was very drunk. I could hear shouting, a lot of shouting. He said she was angry, she’d chucked him out. So he come to mine. He was a bit upset. She was my best friend. I told him it would be ok. If he had nowhere to go, I didn’t mind if he stayed.”
Matthews recalled that Chapman then “slept on the couch” of her home that evening and continued to reside at her house over the coming days, including in her room while she slept in her children’s beds. When Ms Snowdon asked her if she was aware that the police had executed a search warrant at his grandparents home on New Year’s Day, she responded: “Absolutely no idea.”
Dowdall, aged 34 and of Woodchurch, denies one charge of assisting an offender. Matthews has pleaded not guilty to three counts of the same offence.
Chambers, aged 43 and of no fixed address, denies two charges of assisting an offender while 50-year-old Owen, of Woodchurch, has pleaded not guilty to one count. The trial, before Mr Justice Morris, continues.
