The pair were steeped in criminal culture and played a major role in Wirral's spiralling gun crime problem
Even after taking the life of a completely innocent young woman in an act of senseless violence - Connor Chapman could count on the support of his criminal ally John Lewis.
At the time of Elle's murder, Lewis was in prison awaiting sentence, which had been delayed pending the outcome of a separate trial, related to him running a county lines drug trafficking operation and trading firearms using the EncroChat encrypted phone network. The first attempt at that trial, in March last year, ended with a hung jury, but Lewis was convicted of conspiracy to supply cocaine, heroin and cannabis and conspiracy to transfer firearms following a re-trial last month.
EncroChat messages sent to and by Lewis, who used the handle 'BlazeBat', also exposed a startlingly casual attitude to trading and using firearms. David Temkin, KC, prosecuting, told the court how Lewis negotiated with an EncroChat user called 'DenzelBoss'. EncroChat data revealed Lewis, however, was at the joint-head of a county lines style drug trafficking operation, alongside an unknown criminal using the handle 'Nodaysoff'. Their network supplied kilo quantities of heroin, cocaine and cannabis to both Rhyl and Exeter.
Although Lewis was not the trigger-man in the 2019 shooting, he was part of a crew of four men on two stolen motorbike which hunted their rival down "in a pack" and unleashed a flurry of bullets outside a busy primary school, where children were visible on CCTV. Supt Moscrop said as a direct result of organised crime disputes in Wirral, the Home Office sponsored a project called EVOLVE, which uses a strategy of ‘Clear, Hold and Build’ to tackle those who engage in organised crimes and to make communities safer and more resistant to criminals and criminal activity.
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