Moment Ashley Dale's killer grins as he buys beer just hours before shooting
Chilling CCTV captures the moment a man who killed a council worker smiles as he buys beer less than four hours before the shooting.
James Witham, now 41, accepts opening fire at Ashley Dale, 28, with a Skorpion sub-machine gun but while he accepts manslaughter, he denies murder. A court heard Witham admitted kicking through the front door of her home in Old Swan, Liverpool, moments before the bullets were fired.
New footage showed to Liverpool Crown Court, taken just hours previous, show a smirking Witham and co-defendant Joseph Peers, 29, in nearby newsagent Adisco Food and Wines. Witham purchased a box of Peroni beer and Peers also bought cans of cider there. The pair had driven to the shop in a grey Hyundai i30N car, later recorded on Leinster Road when Ashley was shot.
Joseph Peers and James Witham seen buying alcohol at Adisco Food and Wines (Merseyside Police)A camera inside the Adisco Food and Wines records how as Witham is at the till, a woman dressed in a matching pink top and leggings and wearing fluffy slippers chats to the men, and Peers and Witham can be seen smiling, Liverpool Echo says. A camera outside shows the two men talking to the woman, before Peers takes out what appears to be a phone and passes it to her. She appears to type on the device before handing it back, and they go their separate ways with the two men returning to the Hyundai.
The prosecution case is that Witham and Peers were "dispatched" to kill Miss Dale's boyfriend Lee Harrison, 25, by three men - Niall Barry, 26; Sean Zeisz, 28; and Ian Fitzgibbon, 28 - who were allegedly directing the hit from a flat in Huyton, Merseyside, in August last year.
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The clips form part of a timeline presented in court showing the movements of the five men between August 19 and August 20. The jury heard Barry, Witham, Peers, and another associate travelled to Abergele, North Wales on the afternoon of August 19, driving in the grey Hyundai i30n car recorded at the scene of the shooting.
Ashley Dale, who worked for Knowsley Council, was found unresponsive in the back yard of her home (Liverpool Echo)At 6.47pm that evening, CCTV showed the men return to the flat in Huyton. Detective Sergeant Graeme Sutton, under questioning from Alex Langhorn, junior counsel for the prosecution, told the jury Barry did not emerge again until after the shooting. However the others came and went a number of times, making several journeys to local shops and further afield. Witham and another associate, Michael Kershaw, also attended a football match at Goodison Park the following day, Saturday, August 20.
That morning Fitzgibbon arrived at the flat in a black Volkswagen Golf and picked up Witham. The pair then travelled to Taskers sports shop in Aintree, where Witham was recorded buying a pair of black On Cloudflyer trainers for £155. The jury has heard a footprint on Ashley's front door matched the tread of those trainers.
Witham then went to watch Everton vs Nottingham Forest, with a transaction recorded in his name at 2.27pm at Willow Catering, a food provider near the stadium. Later that evening, shortly before 6pm, Fitzgibbon and Peers are seen buying sweets and a pay-as-you-go top up at a Go Local store in Huyton near the flat. DS Sutton said a new Nokia phone, attributed to Barry, activated a short time later for the first time.
At around 8.25pm, a delivery driver in a taxi pulled upside the flat in Huyton, carrying bags of what appear to be takeaway food. Fitzgibbon is also recorded leaving the flat and entering Chan's Fish and Chip Shop at 8.32pm.
The jury heard that at 9.13pm, a silver Mercedes parked on the kerbside and Sean Zeisz emerged. After a few minutes hanging around the fish and chip shop, Zeisz entered the flat. By 9.30pm; Witham, Peers, Fitzgibbon, Zeisz and Barry were all inside the flat. Earlier in the trial Paul Greaney, KC, told the jury the Crown's case is that the flat was a "base of operations" for the shooting.
Ashley Dales' sister, mother Julie Dale and stepfather Rob Jones arrive at Liverpool Crown Court (PA)The jury has already heard Ashley's boyfriend, Harrison, had been "best mates" with Barry before an alleged fall-out a number of years ago, which Ashley described as causing "heavy beef" between the two men.
The prosecution has claimed a fight or assault at Glastonbury festival in late June last year triggered animosity between Zeisz and Harrison's friend Jordan Thompson, which "reignited" the feud between Barry and Harrison.
Barry is alleged to have threatened Harrison in the weeks before the shooting, and Ashley described her "terrible anxiety" that something "bad" was going to happen between the two men.
Witham, of Ashbury Road in Huyton; Zeisz, of Longreach Road in Huyton; Barry, of Moscow Drive in Tuebrook; Peers, of Woodlands Road in Roby; and Fitzgibbon, of Heigham Gardens in St Helens, all Merseyside, have pleaded not guilty to murdering Ashley Dale, conspiracy to murder Harrison and conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon, namely a Skorpion submachine gun, and ammunition with intent to endanger life. Witham has admitted the lesser charge of manslaughter. A sixth man - 26-year-old Kallum Radford, of Trentham Road in Kirkby - denies assisting an offender. The trial, before Mr Justice Goose, continues and is scheduled to last for six to eight weeks.
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