Elle Edwards' dad returns to daughter's happy place

This treasured photo of Elle and her sister was taken six months before the fatal shooting

Two weeks before watching his daughter's killer be jailed, Tim Edwards stood on a hill side in Corfu and looked out to sea.

He had taken a photo of Elle and her sister Lucy at the exact spot six months before Connor Chapman opened fire with a submachine gun and shot the 26-year-old twice in the head as she celebrated Christmas Eve with friends.

"It was a beautiful photo. I think the girls had a moment here. They were so close," he says.

Tim's journey to Greece might seem like an odd choice for a bereaved father in the weeks before a murder trial but this was his way of coping.

"I suppose it's like therapy. These were happy times," he says.

"It beats sitting in someone's office speaking about how you're feeling and how bad things are."

Around Tim's neck is a silver locket containing Elle's hair which he holds frequently here in Corfu and continuously during the trial.

This is his way of trying to avoid falling into a pit of despair and rage.

He confesses there have been times when he tried to lose himself in the bottom of a bottle of whisky.

Tim says returning to Greece was like therapy

"I've done that. A bottle of whisky every day. And that has its own problems," he says.

"The next day that hits you three, four, five times harder.

"And the answer to that, is to go back to the drink to erase the previous days memories.

"That's a spiral you don't want to be in."

• You can find help and support at BBC Action Line

We followed Tim for four months before the trial for a BBC Breakfast documentary, which gained unprecedented insight to the unbearable pain of a murder.

Tim hires the same speedboat he and Elle and Lucy had hired a year earlier.

And as we bob in the Mediterranean, a text message arrives on his phone from Merseyside Police, asking Tim to arrange a time when he flies home so they can show him CCTV footage of Elle's murder.

"Who wants to watch a video of their daughter being murdered? Who on earth wants to watch that?" he says.

"But then do you want to sit in the court room and see those images for the first time and then deal with it? What do you do?

"Once you've seen it, you are never going to unsee it are you? How do you deal with that?"

Tim and Elle, pictured on their last night in Manchester

While Tim, Elle and Lucy were in Greece together, Chapman was standing trial for attempted murder.

While in custody, he recorded a rap threatening retribution against rival gangs and boasting about his criminality.

A jury found him not guilty and as Elle was flying home from Greece, Chapman was leaving custody.

He went straight back to selling cocaine on the streets of Wirral and on the evening of 24 December, he made his way to the Lighthouse pub.

Elle was killed outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village, Wirral

In Corfu, Tim took me to a pub called Nellies where they spent every night on their holiday, drinking cocktails and laughing.

"We always had the best time. Elle was the happiest she had ever been," he says.

They scribbled their name on the wall by the bar. We walk over and sure enough, there are their three names.

We sit in Nellies and Tim shows me a video on his mobile phone.

• Elle Edwards murderer jailed for at least 48 years

• 'My daughter's murderer can rot in hell'

• What can be done to better tackle violent gangs?

Elle is holding the camera, filming her dad on the sofa at the end of their very last night together.

There's an empty bottle of wine on the floor and Tim has his eyes closed.

They are both singing along to their favourite song, Landslide by Fleetwood Mac.

When the song finishes, you can hear Elle shout, "Hey Dad! 2023 baby. Here we come!"

When Tim, along with investigating officers, made a heart-breaking appeal for information in the aftermath of the murder, and when Chapman was sentenced, Tim wore a Fleetwood Mac t-shirt.

Tim reflects on how they always "had the best time"

Back home in New Brighton, there is a new mural of Elle. I met Kirby Fraser, Elle's best friend.

"We were best friends since school. We were so close," she says.

"That's how I met her brother Connor and we went on to have Roman together.

"Elle loved Roman. When ever they were together they always had the best time."

A mural of Elle has been created in New Brighton

Chloe Ward is Elle's cousin, her mum Janet is Elle's mum's sister.

She and Kirby talk about how hard Elle's mother Gaynor is finding life without Elle.

"She sits at home waiting for her to walk through the door. She can't believe it's true," she says.

Remembering her beloved cousin, Chloe says Elle had "the best laugh".

"No-one had a laugh like Elle. Family was everything to her."

You can watch the documentary with Tim Edwards on the BBC iPlayer.