The suspected target of a shooting that killed innocent bystander, Elle Edwards has been recalled to prison.
Jake Duffy from Beechwood was found in a restaurant with people he shouldn’t be with. He is thought to have been the intended victim of drug dealer Connor Chapman’s attack at the Lighthouse Inn in Wallasey Village just after 11.50pm on Christmas Eve 2022.
Elle Edwards, 26, tragically lost her life in the shooting, and five others – including Duffy and his mate, Kieran Salkeld – were injured. The incident was the devastating climax of a deadly sequence of events, sparked by Duffy and Salkeld’s savage assault on a man named Sam Searson the day before.
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Duffy and his pal William Duggan, also 24, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, July 5, after admitting to stealing an Amazon delivery van on Frankby Road, West Kirby, on December 16 2022 – merely a week before the shooting. Duffy also confessed to handling a stolen motor vehicle – a £14,500 Ford Kuga, nicked from Broomfield Gardens, Liverpool, on December 6.
(Image: Liverpool Echo)
The car was discovered burnt out and without its number plates on Boundary Road, Birkenhead, on December 19, 2022. Using GPS data retrieved from the charred vehicle, detectives were able to trace its movements between December 6, when it was stolen, and the date it was found, reports the Liverpool Echo.
But the most damning piece of evidence emerged on December 23 when Duffy and Salkeld were caught on a doorbell camera attacking Sam Searson on Highfield Road, Rock Ferry. In the midst of the assault, Duffy’s iPhone was dropped, which later revealed a video of a man believed to be Duffy bragging: “Man’s just took the whole Amazon van, you know.”
(Image: Liverpool Echo)
After the incident, Duffy found himself released from prison in January this year under stringent licence conditions, only to appear before the courts again for crimes involving the stolen Amazon van and handling a stolen motor vehicle.
For these offences, he received a sentence of 10 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, alongside an order to complete 25 rehabilitation activity days and pay £250 in costs.
Yet, Duffy’s freedom was short-lived as he was arrested on August 1 for breaching his licence terms and was sent back to jail the next day to finish his sentence after being spotted with individuals at a Liverpool restaurant who were on his ‘non-association list’. Additionally, Duffy is bound by a two-year gang injunction imposed last August.
Chapman was sentenced to at least 48 years in prison for the botched gangland hit.
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