Connor Chapman was sentenced to a life sentence for the murder of Elle Edwards but his criminal past dated back to when he was just 14
From a staggeringly young age, criminality coursed through Connor Chapman’s veins. Growing up on the Woodchurch estate and mostly living with his grandparents, the killer-to-be left school before sitting his GCSEs and was first hauled before the courts as long ago as 2014, when he would have only been aged around 14, for shoplifting.
From there, his rap sheet would be bulked out at a staggering pace. There were entries for burglary, section 47 assault and possession of an offensive weapon in a public place in 2015. In 2016, the youth was before the criminal justice system for being found on an enclosed premises and being carried in a stolen car. This was followed up by appearances for breaching a conditional discharge, driving without a licence and driving without insurance.
Then, in 2017, came offences of theft of a motor vehicle, possession of cocaine and breaching a criminal behaviour order which banned him from parts of the Wirral. In 2018, Chapman was convicted of possession of cannabis and possession of a bladed article in a public place.
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It was during this year that his name would come to the attention of the wider public when he featured in the pages of the ECHO for the first time. The court heard on this occasion that police spotted a stolen Audi S3 on New Hey Road in Woodchurch and attempted to stop the car before it drove away at speed.
A then 18-year-old Chapman was behind the wheel and would go on to reach speeds of up to 60mph in a 30mph zone as he tried to make good his escape. He travelled the wrong way around a roundabout and careered into oncoming traffic before ultimately smashing into a kerb on Cherry Tree Road, causing him to ditch the vehicle and run. When he was found hiding in nearby undergrowth by PCs, he simply replied: “I’m waiting for my mate.”
The teen had already amassed 14 convictions for 30 offences by this time. Lionel Greig, defending, told the court: “He is influenced by older peers and he has struggled with his own health problems, including ADHD and other medical prognoses.”
Chapman, then of Woodland Road, admitted dangerous driving, aggravated vehicle taking, driving while disqualified and breaching a criminal behaviour order. He was handed eight months in a young offenders’ institute and banned from driving for two years and four months.
Sentencing, Recorder Mary Loram QC poignantly told him: “You have a bad record despite your young age, and you have been given every possible chance. You have no regard at all for other people, it strikes me.
“Other people with such a diagnosis do not behave in the way that you do. They do not cause a nuisance to members of the public in the way you do.”
Chapman would go on to add counts of failing to comply with a community order and failing to surrender custody to his criminal record, then received 10 months in January 2020 for handling stolen goods, possession of a bladed article in a public place, driving while disqualified and breaching a CBO. Records show that Merseyside Police issued public appeals for information on his whereabouts when he was a wanted man on no less than five occasions, and in his own words he was “in custody more than he was out”.
He next appeared in the news for a court appearance in 2021, when he was described as a “nuisance ASBO yob”. By now aged 20 and with his record stretched further to 19 convictions for 43 offences, Chapman was found shacked up in a hotel with his girlfriend after going on the run from police and spending three months at large.
Released from the 2020 sentence in June that year on licence, by August he had “effectively dropped out of contact with his offender manager”. A recall to custody was issued in September, the fugitive having failed to return to his hostel on Great Howard Street in Liverpool city centre and “dropped off the radar”.
A letter would be sent to his nan’s home on the Isle of Man, his last known address, demanding that he surrender within five days. But Chapman would belatedly be traced to a hotel on Holland Road in Wallasey, being arrested during a raid in the early hours of December 9 that year.
Daniel Travers, appearing on his behalf during this appearance, stated that his client had not wanted to return to custody due to lockdown measures imposed amid the coronavirus pandemic, adding: “That played on his mind, knowing the regime that would be returning to. He says he simply buried his head in the sand and couldn’t come to terms with what would happen.
“I think, like all of us, he was hoping when he was back in custody he wouldn’t be returning to this regime. But, unfortunately, he has.”
Chapman pleaded guilty to remaining unlawfully at large following a recall to custody. Appearing via video link to HMP Altcourse, he was jailed for four months.
Recorder Matthew Corbett-Jones outlined his “12 previous offences of disobedience of his ASBO” and said: “Although this is a different offence, it shows your disregard for court orders. The public need to have confidence in the system that operates so far as custodial sentences are concerned.”
Chapman was then accused of attempted murder in relation to a shooting outside Christ Church Primary School. It came after four men on two motorcycles chased a Ford Fiesta in which their victim Jack Hayes was being carried before cornering the vehicle at the entrance to the Shell petrol station on Borough Road in Birkenhead on the afternoon of November 26 2019.
The vehicle was then sprayed with six bullets as his girlfriend desperately attempted to escape by performing a U-turn. A seventh shot from a self-loading handgun missed.
The target was hit in the thigh, arm and shoulder but survived the attack after undergoing surgery. Chapman was alleged to have been the rider of the bikes involved in the incident.
However, he was ultimately cleared by a jury and was released from prison after spending a spell in custody on remand in connection with the case. Co-defendant John Lewis was however convicted of attempted murder, as well as drug and firearm offences relating to encrypted communications platform EncroChat, and jailed for a total of 24 years.
Chapman was freed from this spell behind bars in summer 2022. His first child had been born while he was inside, and – with a second daughter on the way – he would tell a jury during his trial that he felt the urge to turn over a new leaf and grow up.
He did so by turning away from the anti-social behaviour of his younger years and started dealing cocaine, as well as burgling a house in Noctorum and stealing two electric motorbikes for good measure in spite of being served with a gang injunction – a well meaning order aimed at curbing his criminal exploits, but ultimately described as being “as much use as a chocolate teapot” due to his flagrant breaches – by the county courts. But by far his most serious and devastating offending was yet to come.
On December 24 2022, in the midst of a dispute between organised crime groups based on the Woodchurch and Beechwood estates, Chapman armed himself with a Skorpion submachine gun. He lay in wait for Kieran Salkeld and Jake Duffy, members of the rival gang, outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey for three hours.
Shortly before midnight, an opportunity presented itself. Spotting the two men outside having a cigarette, Chapman opened fire 12 times.
Both were seriously injured, but neither were killed. A wholly innocent victim was, however. By chance, Elle Edwards had been standing beside Salkeld at this exact moment and was struck in the head by two of the bullets. The popular beautician died aged only 26. Chapman was ultimately convicted of her murder, as well as counts of attempted murder against Salkeld and Duffy. He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 48 years.
In the past weeks four people have appeared before Liverpool Crown Court accused of assisting an offender after allegedly harbouring gunman Chapman, disposing of the clothing he wore during the shooting, helping him to torch the stolen Mercedes used in the murder and then aiding his escape to a holiday lodge in Wales as the police closed in. However, after six hours and 20 minutes of deliberations, the jury cleared David Chambers, Danielle Dowdall, Roxanne Matthews and Paul Owen of the charges.
Thomas Waring was previously convicted of assisting an offender and was jailed for nine years, having taken possession of the firearm following the incident and travelled in convoy to the burnout site in Frodsham with the killer on New Year’s Eve.
