The uncle of the gunman who killed a 26-year-old beautician outside a pub on Christmas Eve has denied helping him to plot an “escape route” after the shooting.
David Chambers, 41, is accused of helping to get rid of clothes and to hire a car for Connor Chapman, 24, who shot dead Elle Edwards on December 24 2022.
Chapman opened fire with a Skorpion sub-machine gun outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village, Wirral, killing Ms Edwards and injuring five others in the culmination of a feud between rival gangs.
On Thursday, Chambers told Liverpool Crown Court he thought his nephew was involved in “petty crime” but said he did not know he was a drug dealer.
He said: “From what I knew, to be honest, it was petty stuff like getting an ASBO and a gang order. That’s it.”
He said he did not believe there was a gang on the Woodchurch estate, where Chapman lived.
Asked if he was aware of a feud between the Woodchurch and Ford estates, he said: “I think everybody was.”
The court heard on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, Chambers went to Manchester with Chapman, his brothers and Thomas Waring.
On Christmas Day, he said he had driven to Chapman’s home to collect outside chairs to be used at Christmas dinner, but did not speak to Chapman while he was there.
He said: “I pull up, put four chairs in the back of the car, drive away.”
He denied collecting a bag containing clothes worn by Chapman when he carried out the shooting and taking it to the home of co-defendant Danielle Dowdall.
Chambers was asked about phone contact in early January 2023 with Waring, who was later convicted of helping Chapman to dispose of the Mercedes used in the shooting.
Katy Appleton, prosecuting, said: “Were you arranging Connor Chapman’s escape route?”
Chambers said: “No.”
Finishing her cross-examination, Ms Appleton said: “To conclude, Mr Chambers, you knew full well your nephew had murdered Elle Edwards, didn’t you, on Christmas Eve, well before he was arrested?”
Chambers replied: “Absolutely not.”
She added: “You wanted to assist him in evading arrest at any cost?”
Chambers said: “Absolutely not.”
Ms Appleton accused him of being the “orchestrator” of removing the clothing worn by Chapman and in arranging for the hire car which Chapman used to drive to a holiday lodge in Wales.
Chambers said he had given Roxanne Matthews a lift to collect the hire car after Chapman asked him to, but claimed he did not know Chapman was using the car until Matthews told him after his arrest.
The court heard when police searched Chambers’ address officers found £4,610 in cash.
He told the court he had the money because he had just sold a litter of mini-daschund puppies.
Chambers, of no fixed abode, denies two counts of assisting an offender.
Dowdall, 34, of Woodchurch, Wirral, denies one count of assisting an offender; Matthews, 34, of Noctorum, Birkenhead, denies three counts of the same charge; and Paul Owen, 55, also of Woodchurch, denies one count.
The trial will continue on Friday.
