Ashley Dale murder suspect's mum in fiery exchange with lawyer during trial

25 October 2023 , 14:55

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Ashley Dale, 28, (Image: Liverpool Echo)

The mum of a man charged with the murder of Ashley Dale sobbed in court after being accused of telling a “pack of lies”.

Ashley Dale died after she was shot in the abdomen and collapsed in her back garden, at her home in Liverpool, on August 21 last year. The 28-year-old council worker had been spending the evening alone with her dachshund Darla before she was shot with a Skorpion machine pistol in the early hours of the morning.

Joseph Peers, 29, is one of five men on trial at Liverpool Crown Court. Ashley is not believed to have been the intended target of the killing and Merseyside Police detectives previously said that a gunman had burst through her front door and fired multiple shots "indiscriminately", one of which struck Ashley.

Peers is on trial alongside James Witham, 41, who's admitted to manslaughter, Ian Fitzgibbon, 28, Niall Barry, 26, and Sean Zeisz, 28. Peers told the court he was at home at the time, watching a boxing fight between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk with his parents.

Murder suspect Joseph Peers (Liverpool Echo)

Today, the defendant’s mother Lesley McMahon told the court she had been in her bedroom just after 11pm on August 20 when Peers returned home and brought her a cup of tea. Cross-examining her, Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, said: “Sadly, what you have done is tell this jury a pack of lies.” Mrs McMahon replied: “You prove that.” She later added: “When you’ve got evidence to put before the court to call me a liar you may call me that.”

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Following questioning about whether she had spoken to her husband about the timings of what happened on the night of the shooting, Mrs McMahon said she was “nervous” and appeared to become upset, wiping away tears with a tissue. She told the court she had not viewed CCTV from the family home which would show her son returning home, and the recorder had since been damaged in a house move and was now in landfill.

Ms McMahon said she loved her children “dearly” and, when asked if she was protective of them, said: “Every mother’s protective, yes.” Peers’s father Thomas McMahon also gave evidence and told the court he had watched the boxing with his son that night.

The court heard defendant Kallum Radford, 26, who denies assisting an offender by helping to store the car used in the shooting, would not be giving evidence in the trial. Steven Swift, defending Radford, told the jury: “There is no further evidence to call on his behalf.”

Peers and co-defendants James Witham, 41, Niall Barry, 26, Sean Zeisz, 28, and Ian Fitzgibbon, 28, deny the murder of Ms Dale, conspiracy to murder her partner Lee Harrison and conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon, a Skorpion sub-machine gun, and ammunition.

Eleanor Barlow