Elle Edwards’ grandmother, Sue Edwards, presented a ‘Victim Personal Statement’ to Liverpool Crown Court at the sentencing hearing for her granddaughters’ murderer.
She said, “To me Elle was beyond caring, beyond kind, beyond generous and loving.
“Negativity was not part of Elle’s vocabulary. She wouldn’t spend time with negative people.
“If you were lucky enough to be chosen by Elle as a friend, you knew that friendship was to be cherished and would last forever. Elle seemed to live to make people happy.
“I can’t think of a single word in the English dictionary that describes Elle, so I thought that if I tell you a couple of stories about me and Elle then perhaps you will understand how special a granddaughter she was. I must tell you though, as ‘cheesy’ as it might sound to some she called me ‘Queen’ and I called her ‘Princess’.
September 2021
“On my birthday Elle arrived with some beautiful flowers and my favourite chocolates from M&S and she said, “I am picking you up tomorrow at 2 o’clock and we are going somewhere special. It’s a surprise so don’t ask, so get yourself ‘dicky dollied’ up Queen cos it’s somewhere special”.
“We set off the next day to where I didn’t have a clue. Now because of losing my central vision, I could only see the blue motorway signs and couldn’t see any of the writing. So like an annoying child I kept asking “Are we there yet?”
“She just laughed and told me to wait and see.
“Even when we turned off a country road between the gates I still did not have a clue. She parked up in a wooded area of pine trees so I thought okay so we are going for a walk. We walked along a narrow path and towards a huge wall, it must have been about 30’ tall, you couldn’t see over it or around the sides.
“We went through an archway and there in front of us was a huge castle, it took my breath away and I was very emotional. Elle took some photographs with the castle behind me.
“But it is what she said that stayed with me, she said “Every Queen has to have her own castle”. She had booked us afternoon tea in my very own castle in the Cheshire Countryside. Who does that? Someone very special does that and went that extra mile to make me happy.”
December 2021
“Now besides eating cake, I used to bake cakes all the time. Christmas 2021 we all went to Tim and Gaynors for Christmas dinner.
“Tim would be in the kitchen wrestling with the turkey and throwing sprouts around the kitchen, he cooked the dinner every year.
“About an hour before lunch, we would all gather in the front room and exchange our gifts and play with Roman and his new toys.
“Elle gave me a large heavy box. When I opened my parcel, inside was what I would call a cake dome, the type of thing you would use if you were lucky enough to have any cake left. It was beautiful, it had a heavy thick wooden base which sat beneath the glass.
“Elle had had a message carved in the base, it said ‘Nanny Sue’s delicious bakes’, and around the edge was carved ‘You are forever loved’. Yet again she went beyond to make me happy.
“I hope I have given you a bit of an insight into mine and Elle’s relationship. She was so very very special to me and my best friend. I will finish now but I want you to know that if I were to die tomorrow, the coroner would write on my certificate, cause of death….‘She died of a broken heart’.”
“I miss my Angel Princess so much it hurts.”
Image: Elle Edwards/Family handout
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