Elle Edwards' dad vows to help combat Merseyside gun violence

The father of Elle Edwards, who was shot dead outside a pub on Christmas Eve, has said his mission is now to stop gun violence on Merseyside.

Tim Edwards' 26-year-old daughter was killed when Connor Chapman, 23, opened fire with a Skorpion sub-machine gun at the Lighthouse pub in Wirral.

Chapman injured five other people when he fired 12 shots before driving away from the scene in a stolen Mercedes.

He was found guilty on Thursday and will be sentenced later.

Following his conviction, Mr Edwards said he wanted to do "all I can" to stop the cycle of gun violence in the area.

Last year also saw the fatal shootings of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, Ashley Dale and Sam Rimmer.

"We need to be doing something now," Mr Edwards said.

"My focus is to stop another Elle Edwards, another Ashley Dale, another Olivia Pratt-Korbel and if I can be part of something that helps stop these kids doing these horrendous crimes, then I'll do all I can."

He added: "The most powerful thing we have is the sense of community, it's still there in these places.

"I think a lot of people maybe are afraid because they're intimidated by these gangs who are hanging around, but if we stick together, we're going to win every time."

Former Liverpool gang boss Sicarius McGrath, who now works with charities across the UK to prevent gun violence, said stop and search should be a tool used more readily on Merseyside.

He said: "If we go back from 2009, up until about 2013 I was stopped daily, numerous times on Merseyside and it disrupted me.

"It made me more reluctant to carry weapons and it definitely reduced the amount of times I used a weapon and committed serious violence. So it definitely does work."

He added: "You're never going to stop someone from getting hold of a weapon if they want one, there's a knife in every kitchen drawer.

"Guns are much more difficult to source but nevertheless, people are going source them one way or another. We're never going to stop it the only thing that can be done is to reduce it, and then manage it more effectively."

Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner Emily Spurrell said there had been a "huge amount of work done" to crackdown on criminal groups but argued more cash was needed to help fight gun violence.

She said: "We are still 450 officers short of where we were in 2010. We lost about 1,100 officers in Merseyside and that doesn't include our PCSOs and staff.

"But I've always said, you can't just turn the tap back on and expect things to go back to the way they were, we've seen 10 years of austerity that has damaged our public services.

"It's going to take time for us to build up that expertise again to get our officers trained up to support them, so they're in the best position to be able to tackle some of these issues."

The Home Office has been contacted for comment.

Chapman is due to be sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court later.

Mr Justice Goose has told the court he would consider imposing a whole life order.

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