THE father of Elle Edwards has said he will “keep making noise” as he shared an update in his fight against the government’s early release scheme.

The scheme is a stopgap measure introduced by the government to ease the pressure on the prison system. The policy allows certain criminals to be released from custody after serving 40% of their sentence in prison as opposed to 50%.

Elle Edwards, a 26-year-old beautician, was an innocent bystander when she was shot dead outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey by Connor Chapman on Christmas Eve 2022.

Chapman, 23, who opened fire with a Skorpion sub-machine gun towards the entrance of the pub and killed Elle was given a life sentence with a 48-year minimum term.

Thomas Waring, an associate of Chapman, helped hide the gun and burnt out a stolen car used in the shooting.

The 20-year-old of Private Drive in Barnston, was found guilty at Liverpool Crown Court and sentenced to nine years following the same trial last year.

However, under the governments early release scheme he could be released after serving less than a third of his sentence.

Elle’s father, Tim Edwards, shared his anger and devastation at the news that the man who helped the killer of his daughter could be released as early as April 2026 – meaning he will have served just two years and nine months.

Tim said he received a letter from a victim liaison officer at the Ministry of Justice which said Waring could walk free from prison after serving a third of his sentence under the government’s early release scheme. As a result he could be back on the streets in 18 months.

The Ministry of Justice said anyone eligible for home detention curfew would have to pass a rigorous risk assessment before being considered for release. Mr Edwards said he had written to Sir Keir for answers.

Posting on Facebook, Tim, said: “Update on our fight against the early release scheme. We received a letter from the Prime minister, which was at best a letter of acknowledgement, although our actions in the last two weeks have made the government take a look at the scheme but as of today there has been no response from the Ministry of Justice other than to point out that tagging at home has been in place for the last 20 years, this was not the question we asked.

“So I'm going back to London to keep making a noise until we get a direct result and stop scumbags who have been involved in serious violence/murder slip through the net and get out early.

“We go again, and I will keep going until we win. Thank you to everyone who has got behind us and supported us in doing the right thing.”

Speaking on BBC Radio Merseyside, Prime Minister Kier Starmer said prisons were so full, those responsible for the scenes of violence after the killing of three young girls in Southport this summer may not have been locked up if some people were not released ahead of time.

He said: “I don’t want to release any of these people but we’ve been forced to do so because our prisons are absolutely full because the last government sent people to prison and didn’t build enough prison places.

“We got to the point, you’ll remember the terrible disorder obviously impacted hugely in your communities over the summer after the dreadful events in Southport, we had dreadful disorders, we really reached a point where we couldn’t arrest people because the prisons were too full because the last government broke the system.

“I don’t want to release these prisoners, I’m absolutely clear about that, but equally we cannot have a situation which we were faced with where the police were saying to me ‘if we don’t get some of the people out of our prisons, we are not going to be able to arrest people who need to be arrested’.

“That would be a complete breakdown of law and order and I don’t think anybody would disagree with that.

“That’s a very bad inheritance we’ve had to pick up and deal with, I’m very frustrated we had to pick up and deal with but we’ve had to pick it up, it’s another mess we have to clear up.”