Four men guilty of murdering council worker, 28, gunned down in her own home
Four men accused of gunning down council worker Ashley Dale in her own home have been found guilty of her murder.
Miss Dale was just 28 when she was shot dead at home in the Old Swan area of Liverpool on August 21 last year. The court heard she was not the intended target and was shot as a gunman burst in looking for her partner. She was home alone with her dog when James Witham killed her with a Skorpion machine gun.
Ten bullets were fired into her dining room, one hitting Ms Dale in the abdomen as she stood by the back door, and five bullets into the wall of an upstairs bedroom. Witham, 41, Niall Barry, 26, Sean Zeisz, 28, and Joseph Peers, 29, all denied her murder, with Witham admitting manslaughter.
Today, four of six men on trial were found guilty by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court after they took nine hours and 22 minutes deliberating. Witham, Peers, Barry and Zeisz were also convicted of conspiracy to murder Miss Dale’s partner Lee Harrison and conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon, a Skorpion sub-machine gun, and ammunition.
Ian Fitzgibbon, who had also been on trial, was cleared of all charges after denying murder, manslaughter, conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to possess firearms. He punched the air and patted his chest with his fist as he heard the verdict read out.
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A sixth man, Kallum Radford, was found not guilty of assisting an offender.
Ashley was at home with her dog when she was murdered (PA)Tears were shed in the public gallery as word spread that verdicts had been reached, with Judge Goose reminding all those present that each of the verdicts had to be delivered in silence. He told the court he would sentence the four guilty men on Wednesday.
During the trial, Witham had told Liverpool Crown Court: "I haven't slept for a year. I have nightmares every time." He went on: "I've had a year of torture. What I've done to that poor girl. It's been a nightmare for me and obviously her family as well. I'm so sorry."
Ashley worked as an environmental health officer (Liverpool Echo)
She was 28 when she was killed (Liverpool Echo)DNA belonging to Witham was found on a bullet casing from a Skorpion machine pistol in Ashley's home in Leinster Road, Old Swan. He told the court no one else was involved in the shooting, saying: "It's all down to me." Asked by the prosecution if he was the fall guy for the others he added: "No, that's not true. They couldn't do that. No one could do that."
During the trial, voice recordings made by Miss Dale before her death have been played to the court in which she described her “terrible anxiety” and told friends Barry, who had fallen out with Mr Harrison several years before, was “on some pure rampage”.
Murderer James Witham (PA)
Sean Zeisz (PA)Jurors were told that Ashley, a council worker, had been excited about a promotion at work when she was murdered in August last year. The prosecution used the voice notes from Ashley's phone to help bring her killers to justice.
They described a growing feud between her boyfriend and one of the defendants, Niall Barry, 26, who was accused of orchestrating the plot. The court heard that the dispute between Mr Harrison and Barry dated back to 2019 when drug dealer Barry had a stash stolen by the Hillsiders gang.
Murderer Niall Barry (right) with Ashley's boyfriend Lee Harrison (PA)The pair had previously been close but when Mr Harrison joined the Hillsiders, Barry was left angry. The feud was reignited at Glastonbury Festival in 2022, when Barry arrived with a knife threatening to "stab up" Mr Harrison. Between June and her death in August, Ashley described her growing anxiety over her boyfriend’s feud with Barry, telling her pals in one voice note that she was always” looking over her shoulder".
Jurors were shown CCTV and telephone evidence illustrating how Barry, Sean Zeisz, James Witham and Joseph Peers had cooked up a plot to kill Mr Harrison from a small flat in the Dovecot area of the city. Chilling footage showed gunman, James Witham 41, and getaway driver Joseph Peers, 28, driving up Ashley's street before the murder.
Niall Barry (PA)
Joseph Peers (PA)They slashed her tyres, setting off her car alarm, in an effort to draw their target Mr Harrison from the house. But when that plan failed Witham kicked the door down, firing 10 bullets as he chased Ashely screaming through the house.
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Neighbours described hearing the screams before noticing a woman laid groaning in her back garden. Officers matched the footprint left on Ashley's door to a pair of trainers Witham had bought just days before.
Sentencing is set to take place at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday.
Speaking after the verdict Ms Dale's family said she “fell in love with the wrong boy” as they expressed their anger towards the “despicable” boyfriend her murderers were targeting.
Ashley Dales' sister, mother Julie Dale, stepfather Rob Jones and father Steve Dunne (PA)Ms Dale’s mother Julie Dale, 46, said she was “very, very angry” towards Mr Harrison, who had been in a relationship with her daughter for about five years before her death. She said: “Some days I feel like I’m more angry towards him than I am to the person who’s actually killed Ashley because without Lee Harrison this wouldn’t have happened. ”
She added: “The way he’s acted since this has happened has been absolutely despicable. We’ve had no remorse from him. We’ve had no support from him. We have no admittance that it’s anything to do with him. He’s given us any number of reasons of what he’s heard it’s to do with and none of them include him.
“He still carries on going about his life, leaving the country, going on holidays, lording it up, shall we say, like nothing’s happened and nothing’s changed for him and it’s absolutely disgusting, it really is.”
During the trial, the court heard since his girlfriend’s death Mr Harrison had been “totally unco-operative” with police, and had been to Dubai on several occasions.
Ashley had been at home with her dog (Liverpool Echo)Miss Dale’s stepfather Rob Jones said: “The problem we keep coming back to is Ashley fell in love with the wrong boy. I’m not saying for one minute Ashley did not love him, I’m saying he doesn’t love her, clearly, by actions.”
Julie Dale said her daughter was “career driven” and excited about starting a promotion as an environmental health officer at Knowsley Council. She said sitting through the trial, which lasted more than six weeks, had been harder than she expected.
“I thought, in the early days, with some of the things that we had to do – planning a funeral and some really horrific things that we had to do in the beginning, I thought nothing can top them, nothing can get any worse,” she said.
The jury in the Liverpool Crown Court trial heard Miss Dale’s own voice describing events in the weeks leading up to the shooting as many of her voice recordings were played in court.
Detective Chief Inspector Cath Cummings said: “For me, as a senior investigating officer, this was the most compelling and emotional part of the case. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen the evidence of the murder victim play such a crucial role in a court case.
“Ashley was narrating her own story and events that led to her death. There was barely a dry eye in the courtroom as her increased fear and anxiety was played out through recovered voice notes from her phone.”
She added: “It’s Ashley that’s actually brought these offenders to justice because overlaying that with the evidence that we’ve been able to gather she’s told us the story herself.”
Murdered James Witham (PA)Merseyside's Police Commissioner Emily Spurrell said: "I cannot begin to imagine the pain, suffering and loss Ashley Dale’s loved ones have experienced since her shocking murder in August 2022. No family should have to face the devastating heartache they have had to endure in the past fifteen months.
“Ashley was just 28 years old. She was a beautiful young woman with the rest of her life ahead of her. She was at home that night, in a place she was meant to feel safe. She was making a positive contribution to our region in her role as an environmental health officer at Knowsley Council and she’d just successfully achieved a promotion. Heartbreakingly, she never got the chance to begin her new job as her life was cut short in the most brutal and merciless way.
“No justice will ever bring Ashley back to her family. Being present in court over the last seven weeks, witnessing the heartless attempts of those four cowards to cover-up their involvement in Ashley’s murder while being forced to relive the events of that tragic night, must only have compounded their unthinkable suffering.
“Thankfully, the jury saw through those lies and while today’s guilty verdict will not end their grief and loss, I hope it will bring them some small comfort that the four individuals responsible will be spending many years behind bars for their appalling crimes."
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