19 October 2023 , 17:07
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A gunman who shot dead a council worker in her own home uttered just nine words in his first two interviews with police, a court heard.
James Witham, 41, denies murder but admits manslaughter over the death of 28-year-old Ashley Dale, who was killed in Old Swan, Liverpool, in the early hours of August 21 last year. Witham was arrested on the M6 and was taken to a police station in Liverpool, where he exercised his right to silence - apart from the claim he had ‘nothing to do with it mate, not a clue’, the trial at Liverpool Crown Court heard.
Alongside Witham, four other defendants also deny the murder, including Niall Barry, 26, Sean Zeisz, 28, Ian Fitzgibbon, 28, and Joseph Peers, 29. The crime is alleged to have happened following a feud with Dale’s partner Lee Harrison.
James Witham admits manslaughter over the tragic death, the court heard (Merseyside Police)Alex Langhorn, prosecuting, said after a third interview, in which Witham was silent apart from telling police he had size seven feet, he was taken back to his cell and told officers he had been “set up, the car was Davo’s and he’d been told not to say anything”. Mr Langhorn said: “Mr Witham told them he was being ‘stitched up, it is not right’ and asked to speak to his solicitor.”
He told officers he 'did not want to come across as a grass' but said the car belonged to another associate, David McCaig, who had crashed it the day before, and they needed to do more inquiries into it, the jury heard.
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Ashley Dale was shot with a Skorpion machine pistol at her Liverpool home (Liverpool Echo)The court was told Zeisz gave a prepared statement when he was interviewed on August 30 last year. In it, he said he understood he had been arrested as a result of intelligence. He added: “This intelligence is incorrect and categorically untrue. I have nothing to add at this time. I am not involved in this matter.” In a prepared statement given at a later interview, he said: “I wish to make it clear I am disgusted by what has happened.”
Witham, Fitzgibbon, Zeisz, Barry and Peers, all from Merseyside, deny conspiracy to murder Mr Harrison and conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon, a Skorpion sub-machine gun, and ammunition, as well as the murder of Miss Dale. Kallum Radford, 26, of no fixed address, denies assisting an offender. The trial continues.