A Shooting at Christmas | 1
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This is not a video game. This is real life. You go to a fucking pub on Christmas Eve with a machine gun. If it was someone going there with a baseball bat and having a grievance with someone, that's standard, that happens every weekend. But you go somewhere with a machine gun, doesn't matter when it is, you're going there to kill someone. It's Christmas Eve on the Wirral, a comfortable suburban area just outside Liverpool, a port city in the north of England.

26-year-old Ellie Edwards is heading to a local pub with her younger sister Lucy. Ellie is a little less enthusiastic than her sister. She's been hungover for a couple of days already, but she's decided to head out for another night. A beautician, her long blonde hair falls down over her leather jacket and a big silver necklace. Inside the lighthouse pub, the sisters are soon singing and dancing together.

Sometime after 9.30pm, Lucy heads home. She tells Ellie not to stay out late. Ellie says she'll just be another hour and continues back at the pub. What Ellie cannot know is that a man is also standing outside the pub in the car park. He's been waiting and watching the area for around three hours. He's carrying a Scorpion submachine gun. I'm Fiona Hamilton, the Chief Reporter at The Times.

And from The Times, The Sunday Times and News Corp Australia, this is Cocaine Inc. Episode 1, A Shooting at Christmas. Trying to understand what happened next on that night in 2022 ended up being a much bigger task than one reporter could do alone. Over the past year, I've been working in a team from two separate countries with my colleagues David Collins from The Sunday Times and The UK.

So you were part of a group that smuggled £100 million out the UK. How do you reflect on that? And Stephen Drill from News Corp Australia. This is the end of the line. I'm just about to go in, knock on the door of a $10 million house that is accused of being the proceeds of crime.

This investigation has taken us to ten different cities in six countries, travelling over 50,000 kilometres, following a trail from that pub in northern England where Ellie was celebrating Christmas, and leading us to Colombian cartels, drug smuggling in Mexico, a torture chamber in the Netherlands, money laundering in the Middle East, and police raids across Australia.

Sydney's gun crime epidemic has claimed two more lives. Tonight, police have established Task Force Magnus to try to end the bloodshed. What we uncovered was a global business operation based around a single illegal product. One so common that, let's be honest, it's likely that you or someone you know has snorted a line recently.

We'll reveal how the world's legitimate business empires, trading floors and boardrooms, have their shadowy equivalents in the cartels, traffickers and kingpins. But for now, this story starts with Ellie Edwards. David Collins, the Sunday Times Northern editor, went to meet her father. I'm in Merseyside, probably most famous around the world for the Beatles and Liverpool Football Club.

From the city of Liverpool itself, I've made a short drive through the Kingsway Tunnel, under the river, to an area called the Wirral. Hiya. Oh, hi, Tim. You all right? David. How are you? I've come to meet Tim Edwards. He's the father of Ellie Edwards, the young woman who went to the pub on Christmas Eve. He's never spoken about that night in the detail you're about to hear. It doesn't get any easier. Sometimes you can...

You can feel you're getting ahead a bit and dealing with things and everything's getting, you know, it's going to be brighter the future and then something will come along and trigger a memory or, and then I might struggle for a couple of days. But as it happens today, today's a good day. Tim is tall and broad with thick streaked grey hair and a beard.

He's an imposing figure and I guess you might describe him as a man's man. The type of guy you'd sink a few pints in the pub with and chat about football and life. He was born in 1971 and came of age in Liverpool in the 80s. A tough time for the city with high unemployment. But he remembers a close-knit, working-class community. No matter how bad things were, your neighbour would be looking out for you. You know, the local bobby.

He would be on a bike or he'd be walking around and he'd be keeping an eye on the kids. And if the kids were getting up to no good, he'd just go and knock on their door and tell your mother and father and the next minute you get a clip round the ear or when you got in. As a young man, like many, he went out clubbing, which is where he met his wife, Gaynor. Back in the early '90s, the club scene was massive in Liverpool

Yeah, I met her on a night out. And what happened after that? You were just... Yeah, I just fell in love, yeah, fell in love. I started having kids. I was a young lad and I was just doing whatever I could to put food on the table and build a family, you know, build a home. I just did my best. The couple's first child was a boy and then, on the 10th of May in 1996, their second came along.

A daughter called Ellie. She was never a problem. She was always... You know, some kids, when they're babies, they'll be up all night or they won't feed in every couple of hours or whatever. That's my life. Yeah. So, yeah, she was never a bother. We had four kids all together. Connor, Ellie, Lucy and George. It was a great little... It was a happy house, that.

Can you remember Ellie's bedroom when she was a teenager? Oh, typical, typical girl. To be honest, if I could help her, I'd never went in there. Yeah, typical teenager's room. You just don't want to go in there, do you? You just don't know what you're going to find. What was she into? What would she do on a...

a Saturday night for example. Well when she was a child or when she was in her 15, 16. Oh god I remember her best friend she died of hair and I must have seen every colour of the rainbow at least three times over. You'd see them coming now ready to go out on a Friday, Saturday night whatever and you'd have different colour hair every time.

As an adult, Ellie put that creativity to good use. She left school at 16 to study beauty at college and also became a qualified dental nurse. She had a bit of a space in one of her friends' beauty salon. She wanted to build this beautician side of her life, her career, if you like. And Monday to Friday, she would do the dental nurse work. So that was her bread and butter, if you like. So she worked hard.

She worked really hard. Ellie was a young woman with a bright future ahead of her, balancing two careers and close with her family. Although Tim and Gaynor had now split, Christmas remained a fun and happy time. Because although me and the mum were not together, and hadn't been for a couple of years, but I would still make the Christmas dinner and we would all meet up and have Christmas together. Can you remember...

Christmas Eve and did you see Ellie that day? We'd been out the day before to Manchester we'd been to Christmas markets and shopping and the next day she'd bought me a coat for Christmas and the original plan was for her to come to mine and she was going to help me wrap the presents for my grandson and all the other kids and but she didn't

Instead of wrapping presents though, Ellie rang her dad and said she was going out with her sister, Lucy. The pair were close and Lucy had made a surprise trip back from Dubai for the festive period. It could have been so different if we'd have stuck to our plan but girls being the girls, it was never going to stick to that plan. She'd just end up going out with her friends, which is quite right, but she should have been doing. Ellie and Lucy headed to a pub called The Lighthouse.

The pub's in the middle of a small row of shops and businesses, surrounded by residential streets and set a little back from the road. There's a large beer garden out front. Inside, it's a big, spacious boozer. The kind of place where you can watch sport, play pool, gamble on the machines in the corner. Back at home, Tim went to bed. I don't know what time it was. Well, three o'clock, maybe. Two o'clock, I don't know.

And they eventually banged on my door and got me up out of bed. And they opened the door to my son. And can you remember what he said to you? He just said it was Ellie and we needed to go to the hospital. Let's pause a second because on that Christmas Eve, it's the actions of someone Tim had never even heard of that would change his life beyond recognition. A few miles from the pub, a man puts on dark clothes with a hood and gloves.

He gets in a stolen Mercedes with false license plates. For three hours he drives to six different locations watching and waiting before finally settling on a parking spot near the front of the lighthouse. At the same time Ellie is laughing with friends inside the pub. She spots someone across the room and makes her way over to give them a hug. At 11:47 pm she goes outside for a cigarette. In the car park

The man waits around the corner, out of sight, wearing a mask. He's holding the Scorpion submachine gun, loaded with 12 bullets. He moves forward until he's only a few metres away from Ellie and fires. CCTV caught the attack. The man retreats, scrambles into the stolen car and speeds off. Six people have been shot. I just remember getting to the hospital.

as quick as I could. It was quite eerie, there was no one there. And I remember the surgeon coming down and it was awful. And it was obviously the early hours of the morning. Christmas Day. There's nobody there and you're with your son. I was with all the kids, all the family. And they put us in a children's ward, which was crazy. I remember I was just angry.

There was no patients or kids in there. Yeah, I was just very angry. Was it the surgeon in that moment that broke the news? Yeah. That Ellie had died? Yeah. And what was... And your initial reaction was anger? Yeah. Oh, God, yeah. Yeah. I was just ready. I was ready to go to war. I was ready to flatten the whole of the world. No bother. And did you have any idea at that point of how she died? No.

They knew she'd been shot. That was the only thing, really. I was still as far as I was going to turn. She was going to turn up in the morning. I tried ringing her phone. After the moment with the surgery, you tried to ring her phone? Yeah. What was the purpose of ringing her phone? To speak to her. Did you get a voicemail or a message? No. Just for time.

The podcast Faith on Trial looks into Hillsong, both in Australia and the U.S., and takes both the listener and hosts on unexpected twists and turns in the story of Brian Houston and the singing preachers. There are two incidents involving Pastor Brian. The Australian journalists uncovered a litany of alleged criminal behavior in the megachurch. Financial gifts were being given to the leaders of the church. Listen to Faith on Trial.

I actually remember seeing Tim on television after Ellie's death. On Boxing Day, he went to lay flowers on the pavement outside the pub. The waiting news cameras zoomed in on him as he arrived. At the scene where she was killed, Ellie's family came to lay flowers for a woman they so deeply loved.

on what was supposed to be the happiest few days, they've undoubtedly been the worst. It's a blur, to be honest. So much happens. I always explain it as being in an elevator that doesn't stop at any floor. Just keeps going up. So you can never get off. There's so much that goes on really quickly to process and I was protecting the family from having to deal with all that, so I bore the brunt of all of it. Merseyside Police acted quickly.

Hello, first of all I'm going to read a statement on behalf of Ellie's family. There was no one as beautiful as our Ellie Mae. Her looks, her laugh... In a press conference in the week after Ellie's death, I watched Tim sitting next to a detective superintendent as she read from a statement the family had written. Everyone that knew and met Elle knew how special she was.

Of the six people who were shot that night, Ellie was the only one not to survive. Looking back at this now, the grief is obvious on Tim's face. From time to time he sniffs and his lip quivers as if he's holding back tears. The officer appeals for information. They don't deserve to be protected. They belong in prison.

We know that the answers to this lie within our communities. So my appeal to you is please tell us what you know and help us get justice for Ellie's family. And the public responded. In a week after her murder, the police received 150 tips and leads, suggestions of people to look at and other potential evidence. Then, after two weeks, on the 10th of January in 2023...

A 22-year-old called Connor Chapman was arrested in North Wales. He was spotted in a supermarket where he was rushed at the checkout and detained by plainclothes police officers. It's horrendous. You go to a pub with a machine gun on Christmas Eve? Really? Come on.

This is not a video game. This is real life. You go to a fucking pub on Christmas Eve with a machine gun. If it was someone going there with a baseball bat and having a grievance with someone, that's standard. That happens every weekend. But you go somewhere with a machine gun, doesn't matter when it is, you're going there to kill someone.

That machine gun is not gonna just slightly hurt someone, it's gonna kill someone. So who the fuck goes there with that mentality? And especially on Christmas Eve, I just, it's one thing that makes me angry. What part of your brain makes that think that that's okay? Chapman soon found himself in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court. The very first day of the trial he walked into the courtroom

He's obviously behind a piece of glass and all that, protected. But he tried to give her a bit of a show of bravado. But you know what? Within 20 minutes, he never looked at me again because he's just a coward. The trial lasted 16 days and after around four hours of deliberation, the jury found Chapman guilty of Ellie's murder. The judge sentenced him to 48 years behind bars.

The murder of Ellie Edwards has caused profound and permanent grief to her family and a great shock to the entire community. So that it's understood by you, Connor Chapman, as well as those who are observing, it means that you will have to serve 48 years in custody before you could apply for release.

And if you're ever released and considering your dangerousness, that might never happen. Just in the last few minutes, this guilty verdict for Conor Chapman found guilty of murdering Ellie Edwards. Ellie Edwards' father, Tim, once again looking directly at Conor Chapman as those verdicts were read out to him as he stood in the dock. The amount of people involved in this investigation...

from day one, literally from the minute it happened, has been remarkable. And they did not give up. They were relentless in achieving the goal, which was to get justice for Elliot and catch the killer. Thankfully now he's got 48 years and hopefully he never sees Christmas again. What are your feelings towards... I mean, I know you said earlier to me before the interview, you know, you can't even say his name. I'll never mention his name.

Doesn't deserve the breath out of my mouth to mention his name. As far as I know he's a piece of shit and what happens to him until his last breath I couldn't care less. So what was Chapman doing that night? Why was he spraying bullets into a busy pub beer garden? Well he'd actually been targeting two men who Ellie happened to be standing near. You see Chapman was from a place called the Woodchurch Estate a notorious area not far from the pub.

The previous day, one of his associates had been beaten up by a rival gang. He was seeking revenge. When the case came to court, Chapman said he was a quote "low-level cocaine dealer". The shooting was part of an ongoing conflict between rival gangs fighting over territory in the area's cocaine trade.

The same month that Chapman was convicted of murder, July 2023, on the other side of the world, five people were shot within five days in Sydney, Australia. Two of them killed in another tit-for-tat gang conflict. The escalating gang wars in Sydney is leading our bulletin with New South Wales police under pressure to prove they have control of the streets. That conflict was over a shipment of cocaine that went missing.

The shipment was said to be worth around 100 million Australian dollars. One of the murdered men was left lying on the road. Schoolchildren subjected to the horror on a Canterbury street passing the body of a man. His death, like others in that gang war, and like Ellie's, had one thing in common. The root of it all is cocaine mainly. It gets enormous profits for criminals here in Sydney. The cocaine trade.

one of the most lucrative businesses in the world. A business where the global supply is currently at record levels, where the profits are counted in millions and the losses measured out in murders. But those in charge don't care about the human cost. It's only business. And right now, business is good.

Coming up in this series, we go inside that multi-million dollar global industry. Very casually, the guy says, all right, so if they found this, they know about the torture cellar. And I'm like, torture cellar? What are you talking about? I'm down here in a narco tunnel. We're about 80 meters from the Mexican border. And to be honest, it's just quite frightening. I raise my hands and I say to my gut,

I forgive the person that did me that and I say to my God, forgive them and forgive me because in this time I need you so much. I don't think we can arrest our way out of this. They are 24/7. They are motivated by money, greed and ego and that drives them. It's power.

Just between you and me, just between you and me, literally. Some of the money might be from, like, drugs in the UK. The cameras, it's too dangerous. You're worried it's too dangerous to get out? Are you worried about my safety? Of course. You are my guest. What are these rows about, do you think? You know what it's about? I don't have to say the word. You know the word. Drugs. I'm getting out the rain. OK. The first time I saw the money...

I felt like I was in a film. I couldn't believe how much it was. And I thought, what the fuck have I got myself into? How would you like her to be remembered? I'd like her to be remembered for being a good soul, good example to women. You know, unfortunately we'll never get to see the grandkids that we may have had with Ellie. But just...

I hope she's always spoke about in a good, positive way. Since Ellie died, a foundation has been set up in her name. Its mission is to raise awareness of gun crime and help families affected by it.

Cocaine Inc. is a joint investigation from The Times, The Sunday Times and News Corp Australia. The reporters are David Collins, Stephen Drill and me, Fiona Hamilton. The series is produced by Sam Chandratak. The executive producers are Will Rowe and Dan Box. Audio production and editing is by Jasper Leake, with original music by Tom Birchall.

And if you want to get in touch with any questions or thoughts on the series, email cocaineinc at thetimes.co.uk.

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as they tell their incredible stories. My house got raided. Next thing you know, I got bail refused. Next thing you know, I'm on a truck to Park Lane Prison. Listen to I Catch Killers early and ad-free on Crymax Plus on Apple Podcasts today or wherever you get your podcasts.