Murder accomplice's early release 'a mockery'
· BBC NewsJonny Humphries
BBC News, Liverpool
The father of young woman shot dead on Christmas Eve said the early release of her killer's accomplice due to prison overcrowding "makes a mockery" of justice.
Elle Edwards was sitting on a raised flower bed outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village, Wirral, on 24 December 2022, when she was struck by two stray sub-machine gun bullets.
Thomas Waring, then 20, was in the dock alongside gunman Connor Chapman and was convicted of assisting an offender and possession of a firearm in July 2023.
Miss Edwards' father, Tim Edwards, received a letter from the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) explaining that Waring would be released early due to "significant issues with the prison population".
During the trial, jurors heard that Chapman drove to Waring's family home in Private Drive, Barnston, after the shooting and left his Mercedes car and a Skorpion sub-machine gun there.
Waring was also said to have helped Chapman take the car to a rural location near Frodsham, Cheshire, on New Year's Eve, where it was later found burned out.
He was sentenced to nine years in jail, including time spent on remand, and under the previous rules would have been released on licence at the half-way stage.
However the letter stated that Waring's release date has been brought forward almost a year, from September 2027 to the week commencing 11 October 2026.
Mr Edwards has also learned that Waring could be free as early as April 2026 under the Home Detention Curfew scheme, although the MOJ said this would only happen subject to a risk assessment closer to the time.
For Mr Edwards, Waring was "right at the core" of what happened to his daughter shortly before midnight on 24 December 2022.
"As far as I'm concerned, he was as guilty as the person who pulled the trigger", Mr Edwards said.
"He tried to cover up the tracks of the killer by helping them burn out the car, disposing of the firearm, which is to this day, has never been found.
"As far as we know it is still out there, it could still be active somewhere in someone's possession."
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Mr Edwards, from New Brighton, said the letter made him "very angry", adding: "I'm not going to let this go."
"It's a mockery isn't it?" he said.
"It makes a whole laughing stock of the justice system and the sentencing.
"He was doing his best to make sure that the killer got away with it."
Mr Edwards has written to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to express his concern and has asked for an in-person meeting.
In the letter, he described how, in the wake of Miss Edwards's loss, he has tried to warn future generations of the consequences of gang culture to "make sure Elle's murder was not to be in vain".
He accused the early release scheme of "severely undermining our efforts".
As the second anniversary of Miss Edwards's death approaches, Mr Edwards said this development made it even tougher to deal with.
He said: "This is just like a kick in the teeth, and you just feel like you're constantly fighting against a system.
"It's just fundamentally wrong and it needs to change."
Chapman, then 23, was convicted of murdering Miss Edwards and the attempted murder of two men who were the intended targets of the shooting, as well as wounding three other bystanders and related firearms offences.
He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 48 years in prison.
The government brought in rules to allow certain prisoners to be released earlier to deal with what it said was a "crisis in prison places".
In August the BBC had learned that the prison system "came within 100 places" of running out of space altogether.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said: "This was a horrific crime and our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Elle Edwards.
“The new Government inherited a prison system on the point of collapse.
"It has been forced to introduce an emergency release programme to stop a crisis that would have overwhelmed the criminal justice system.”