How Merseyside is terrorised by 120 gangs made up of ‘disenfranchised’ young men willing to use sub-machine guns to settle minor disputes leading to loss of innocent lives like Elle Edwards and Olivia Pratt-Korbel

• Merseyside’s Assistant Chief Constable says situation is ‘terrifically worrying’
• Eight Skorpion sub-machine guns thought to be in circulation around Liverpool 

As many as 120 gangs are operating around Merseyside whose ‘callous’ members are willing to use guns to ‘settle even minor disputes’, police have revealed.

A senior officer said the situation was ‘terrifically worrying’ and meant tragedies such as the shootings of Elle Edwards and Olivia Pratt-Korbel were ‘waiting to happen’.

Eight Skorpion sub-machine guns are now believed to be in circulation around Liverpool. 

A Skorpion – a terrifying Cold War era firearm capable of firing 15 rounds a second – was used by Connor Chapman in the shooting of Miss Edwards last December.

Unlike the criminal families of days gone by, Liverpool’s current organised crime groups typically comprise of boys or young men who just happen to live in the same neighbourhood or street.

Worse still, their choice of weapon has changed with sub-machine guns replacing pistols and handguns.

Five people were the victims of shooting homicides last year around Merseyside, including nine-year-old Olivia, who was shot in August 2022 when gangster Thomas Cashman opened fire at a fellow criminal who was trying to escape by barging his way into her family home.

It comes a decade and a half after 11-year-old Rhys Jones was murdered in Liverpool in August 2007 while walking home from football practice. 

Elle Edwards was gunned down by Connor Chapman on the Wirral in December last year

Nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel was also shot dead in Merseyside last August

Rhys Jones, 11, was murdered in Liverpool in 2007 while walking home from football practice

Miss Edwards was gunned down by Connor Chapman as she enjoyed a Christmas Eve party at the Lighthouse pub on the Wirral in 2022. 

READ MORE Heartbroken family of Elle Edwards shout ‘see you later, scumbag’ at killer as he is led to the cells after being sentenced to 48 years in prison for opening fire on pub with a sub-machine gun on Christmas Eve

Until recently, nine of the Czech-made Skorpions – once a favourite of terror groups such as the IRA – were believed to be in circulation in the Liverpool area.

One has been seized by police, although not the weapon used to kill Miss Edwards.

Merseyside’s Assistant Chief Constable Mark Kameen said of the recent killings: ‘These were horrific murders. In my 30 years of service this was the worst year for this force, something we had never known before.’

But he told how police are determined to ‘root out the callous and evil gangs in this city’.

Mr Kameen said: ‘We used to have idiots running around with pistols and shotguns but now we have the same sort of idiots running around with these sort of guns and that is terrifying.

‘When you put a gun like that into the hands of someone like (Connor) Chapman, then you have a tragedy waiting to happen.’

He added: ‘The people who use these weapons are not big-time criminals just people who are willing to fire off a gun like that into a crowded area.

‘They are cowards, they are callous, they are despicable and they have no moral compass whatsoever. We cannot have that happening on our streets.

‘The fact that these weapons are available is terrifically worrying for us and our aim is to track down them and their owners.’

Mr Kameen revealed that the sheer number of gangs and their changing nature caused difficulties.

He said: ‘Once upon a time gangs were controlled by families who were well-known and their grip covered large areas of the city.

Connor Chapman (pictured) was found guilty at Liverpool Crown Court of killing Elle Edwards

Nine-year-old Olivia was shot last August by gangster Thomas Cashman (pictured)

‘Nowadays they are made up of disenfranchised young men and boys. They are also now more likely to use firearms to settle even minor disputes.

‘The result is the tragedies we saw in the five shootings last year.

‘Up until then the discharge of weapons on our streets had been steadily falling from a high of 80-100 to around 35-45 and then we had these awful, terrible tragedies.

‘I know this is of little comfort to the families of those that were lost but we are fighting back. This year we have only had ten (firearm) discharges so far compared with 25 over a similar period last year.

READ MORE Moment man is beaten up in gang attack that led to pub shooting which left innocent Elle Edwards dead

‘Ultimately, we are aiming for zero discharges. And we are tacking the sources of these crimes, going after the drugs and the cash that is at the heart of these enterprises.’

Mr Kameen said the force was ‘also tacking the guns’ including the Skorpions, which ‘cost serious cash and you have to have some kind of criminal kudos to get one.’

Mr Kameen said police are looking at ‘using new technology’ to combat gangs members’ own attempts to avoid detection, such as regularly changing their phones and avoiding electronic transactions.

He also defended the use of gang injunctions to try and keep criminals in check – after they were described ‘as useful as a chocolate teapot’ during Chapman’s trial when it emerged he was under one at the time of Elle’s murder.

Mr Kameen said: ‘They might not stop someone like Chapman but we know they disrupt criminal activity.

Merseyside Police’s recent activities have included Operation Venetic, which saw encrypted messaging service Encrochat hacked by law enforcement leading to 110 people being convicted and sentenced to a total of more than 1,300 years in prison.

The operation also saw 130kg of Class A drugs and £1.8million of cash seized.

Mr Kameen said: ‘My message to any gang member in Liverpool is simple: we are coming to get you.’

In a separate message, fellow Merseyside Assistant Chief Constable Chris Green warned recreational drug users they are fuelling organised crime which has led to bloodshed.

Issues between criminal groups often started around the control of an area in relation to commodities such as Class A drugs, he said.

Elle Edwards, 26, was killed outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village in Merseyside

He added: ‘There’s a strong message, if those individuals who at the weekend are partying out in clubs or socialising in houses think they’re not doing any harm by having a line of cocaine or doing whatever they want to do… Everyone involved in the chain is responsible.’ 

READ MORE Moment man is beaten up in gang attack that led to pub shooting which left Elle Edwards dead

Meanwhile, Superintendent Matthew Moscrop said challenges with criminal gangs in Wirral had escalated in recent years and particularly in 2022, when Miss Edwards’ death marked the end of a year which had also seen the death of Jacqueline Rutter, 53, in what police believe was a targeted shooting in Moreton, Wirral.

In the months since the shooting police have been working with communities to crack down on the gangs operating in their areas, he said.

The jury in the trial of Chapman, 23, heard he launched the attack outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village shortly before midnight in what was the culmination of a feud between groups on the Woodchurch estate and the Beechwood, or Ford, estate, on opposing sides of the M53.

The father-of-two, who grew up on the Woodchurch estate, told his trial the trouble between the two estates was part of something which happened ‘near enough a year to the day’ of Ms Edwards’ death.

In December 2021, Chapman spent his fourth Christmas in a row in custody and it is understood that while there his mother’s house was burgled and Chapman, in a rap video, threatened to get revenge.

Chapman, who has previous convictions for burglary, possession of a knife, possession of drugs, aggravated vehicle-taking and breaches of an anti-social behaviour order, began selling cocaine when he was released from prison in summer 2022, he told the court.

In October last year he was given a gang injunction, preventing him from spending time on the Woodchurch estate or associating with named individuals.

Miss Edwards’s father Tim outside Liverpool Crown Court after the guilty verdict yesterday

A file photo of a Skorpion sub-machine gun, similar to that used in the Christmas Eve shooting

However, Nigel Power KC, prosecuting, described the order as ‘about as much use as a chocolate teapot’, being treated with ‘utter contempt’ by the defendant.

Chapman admitted being involved in a burglary in November last year, with a video which was not played before the jury showing him smiling in front of stolen electric bikes in the aftermath.

Five days later, Curtis Byrne, one of the other men involved in the burglary, was shot.

The same gun was used to shoot another man, Kieran Cowley, on December 18 outside the home of Mason Smith – the third burglar.

READ MORE ‘This isn’t Grand Theft Auto, this is real life’: Heartbroken father of innocent Elle Edwards says he hopes his daughter’s killer ‘rots in hell’

The day before the shooting which would take Ms Edwards’ life, another man linked to Woodchurch, Sam Searson, was attacked in the street by Kieran Salkeld and Jake Duffy, who would go on to be seriously injured outside the Lighthouse.

Chapman used a stolen Mercedes, which he described as a ‘pool car’ for him and his criminal associates, and a Skorpion sub-machine gun, capable of firing 15 rounds per second, to carry out the Christmas Eve attack which shocked the community.

Mr Moscrop said: ‘The murder of Elle Edwards was absolutely horrific. What happened on Christmas Eve, the impact on the community was massive.’

Since the shooting, police and partners have been working to tackle organised crime groups in Wirral as part of the EVOLVE project, which follows on from similar initiatives launched in Liverpool and Knowsley following fatal shootings.

A pilot project was launched on the Beechwood estate last year, but Mr Moscrop said work had ramped up since the start of 2023, with more partners coming on board. The support from the public, he said, had been ‘brilliant’.

He said: ‘People aren’t tolerant of this.

‘When people realise the implications, that people are losing their lives and being seriously injured because of this, then they will provide intelligence.’

In the six months since Miss Edwards’ death, there have been no shootings in Wirral.

Mr Moscrop said he believed there was a number of factors, including the arrest and subsequent conviction of a number of people.

He said: ‘We know from activity and intelligence, criminals are having to change what they are doing and are deterred from operating in Wirral.’

With Chapman behind bars, Mr Moscrop said it was key to ensure other criminal gangs could not get a foothold in Wirral.

He added: ‘We need to break the model by which gangs are recruiting young people. They need to see if they commit crime it’s not a route to success and glory, it’s a route to jail and misery.’

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