A WOMAN accused of helping Elle Edwards' killer has said she felt sorry for him after his girlfriend kicked him out.

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

She said that on New Year’s Day 2023, after meeting Chapman to buy drugs, she told him he had got her friend pregnant.

She then allowed him to stay at her house in Noctorum, Wirral, when his girlfriend kicked him out and arranged car hire and a lodge for him.

The court heard in one message sent to Chapman by Matthews that she said she felt “awful” for him.

She told the court: “I felt more sorry for him obviously with what was going on with his girlfriend.”

Katy Appleton, prosecuting, said: “You knew he had killed Elle Edwards yet you still felt sorry for him?”

Matthews said: “That’s not correct.”

The court heard that, on January 9 2023, Matthews hired a car in her name for Chapman and booked a stay at a lodge for him, his girlfriend and their baby.

That afternoon she paid £900 cash into her bank account, which the court heard would cover the cost of car hire and the lodge plus an extra £298 – which Matthews said was money her father had given her.

The jury was told Chapman was arrested in Wales on January 10, after driving there the previous day in the Volkswagen T-Cross Matthews had hired.

Asked for her reaction when she was told by Chapman’s uncle David Chambers about his arrest on January 11, Matthews said: “Oh shit.”

She added: “Obviously I was panicking.”

The court heard she called Sixt car rental to report that somebody had taken the car.

Ms Appleton said: “In that call you told a pack of lies about the date and time the vehicle was taken to Wales, didn’t you?”

Matthews replied: “Yeah.”

She added: “That whole thing about him taking the car without permission is a lie.”

Matthews denies three counts of assisting an offender.

Chambers, 43, of no fixed abode, denies two counts of the charge and Danielle Dowdall, 34, and Paul Owen, 55, both of Woodchurch, Wirral, each deny one count.

The trial will continue on Wednesday.