A MOTHER-OF-TWO accused of hiding clothes for the gunman who shot beautician Elle Edwards outside a pub on Christmas Eve has told a court he was her “mate”, not just her drug dealer.

Danielle Dowdall, 34, wiped tears from her eyes with a tissue as she gave evidence at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday.

She is charged with assisting Connor Chapman by looking after a bag which contained the clothing he wore when he carried out the shooting outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village on December 24 2022, killing Ms Edwards, 26, and injuring five others.

Dowdall, of Woodchurch, Wirral, admitted Chapman supplied her with cocaine.

When questioned about a number of calls and texts between her and Chapman on December 30 2022, Dowdall said: “It clearly looks like we’re having a conversation.

“He wasn’t just a drug dealer, he was my mate as well.”

Dowdall told the court she was given a bag of clothing by Chapman but said he brought it round before Christmas Eve because he had been kicked out by his girlfriend.

She denied attempting to steal Pandora jewellery which was in the bag, alleged to have been bought by Chapman on a shopping trip on Christmas Eve, hours before he carried out the shooting.

She told the court: “Before the girl lost her life I had the jewellery and the clothes, that’s how I know they were no part of that girl’s poor loss of life.”

Asked about calls with co-accused Roxanne Matthews on January 13 2023, after Chapman was charged, Dowdall said: “We were both panicking that we were friends with him.”

Martine Snowdon, defending Matthews, asked if they had both realised they had been “duped” into helping the person responsible for Ms Edwards’ murder.

Dowdall said: “Quite possibly.”

Dowdall denies one count of assisting an offender and Matthews, 34, of Noctorum, denies three counts of the offence.

Chapman’s uncle David Chambers, 43, of no fixed abode, denies two counts and Paul Owen, 55, of Woodchurch, denies one count.

The trial will continue on Monday.