Elle Edwards’ killer was ‘my buddy’

A woman accused of hiding clothes for the gunman who shot Elle Edwards outside a Merseyside pub has told a court he was her “mate” and not just her drug dealer.

Danielle Dowdall, 34, denies helping Connor Chapman by looking after a bag containing clothes he was wearing when he carried out the shooting outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey on Christmas Eve 2022.

She told Liverpool Crown Court that he had given her a bag, but that was before that date because he had been kicked out by his girlfriend.

Ms Dowdall and co-defendant Roxanne Matthews deny aiding and abetting an offender.

Ms Dowdall, of Woodchurch, Wirral, admitted Chapman supplied her with cocaine.

Asked about a series of calls and text messages between her and Chapman on December 30, 2022, Ms Dowdall said: “It clearly looks like we are having a conversation.”

“Not only was he a drug dealer, he was also my buddy.”

Ms. Dowdall denied trying to steal the Pandora jewelry contained in the bag, which Chapman allegedly bought during a shopping trip on Christmas Eve, hours before he committed the shooting.

She told the court: “Before the girl lost her life I had the jewelry and clothes, so I know they had nothing to do with the girl’s poor death.”

Asked about calls with co-defendant Ms Matthews, 34, on January 13, 2023, after Chapman was charged, Ms Dowdall said: “We both panicked because we were friends with him.”

Martine Snowdon, defending Ms Matthews, asked whether they both realized they had been “deceived” into helping the person responsible for Ms Edwards’ murder.

Ms Dowdall said: “Quite possibly.”

She denies one count of assisting an offender and Ms Matthews, of Noctorum, Birkenhead, denies three counts.

Chapman’s uncle David Chambers, 43, of no fixed abode, denies two charges and Paul Owen, 55, of Woodchurch, denies one count.

The process continues.

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