A woman tells a court she let the gunman stay because he got her friend pregnant

A woman accused of harboring the gunman who killed a beautician outside a pub has told a court she let him stay at her home after he got her best friend pregnant and his girlfriend find out

Roxanne Matthews, 34, told Liverpool Crown Court on Monday that she had bought cocaine and cannabis from Connor Chapman, who opened fire outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village, Merseyside, on December 24, 2022, killing Elle Edwards, 26 years old, and wounding five. others, in the culmination of a feud between rival gangs.

He told the court he had gone out with a friend on New Year’s Day 2023 and they had met Chapman in the afternoon to get cocaine.

She said: “I told him my friend was pregnant by him.”

Matthews told the court that Chapman was “quite polite” but called her that night and said: “What the hell is your mate playing? My girlfriend has seen it all.”

She told the court: “I heard a lot of shouting. She said she was angry and had kicked him out.

“She came to mine. I was a little upset, obviously. I felt uncomfortable. She was my best friend.

“I told him it would be fine if he had nowhere to go, I didn’t care if he stayed.”

Matthews said he had “no idea” police had executed a search warrant at Chapman’s grandparents’ home.

The mother-of-three said she had helped Chapman find accommodation in Wales for him, his girlfriend and their baby.

He said he believed he wanted to book the trip to “reminisce with his girlfriend.”

Accommodation was booked for Jan. 9, but Matthews said accommodations were available for earlier dates.

She said, “He waited until he could get the one available with the hot tub.”

She said Google Street View searches on her phone for the area around the Lighthouse pub were not done by her.

She said: “I seem to have given him the phone. He’s obviously intended to keep looking for hostels and he’s taken it upon himself to do what he’s done.

Matthews, who told the court he was missing a front tooth due to physical abuse in a previous relationship, said he knew Chapman had been “in and out of jail” for drugs and theft.

He said in his police interview that he used the expression “plastic gangsters” to describe “silly kids” who “think they’re something they’re not”.

The court heard he read news of the shooting online shortly before 7am on Christmas Day.

She said: “I was shocked, horrified, disgusted.”

Matthews, 34, of Noctorum, denies three counts of assisting an offender.

Chapman’s uncle David Chambers, 43, of no fixed abode, denies two counts of the indictment and Danielle Dowdall, 34, and Paul Owen, 55, both of Woodchurch, Wirral, each deny one count .

The trial will continue on Tuesday.