21 November 2023 , 06:54
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Ashley Dale’s mum has said how she “wasn’t happy” with her boyfriend’s lifestyle but she “fell in love with the wrong person”.
Julie Dale, 43, and partner of 17-years Rob Jones, 39, are wondering how their daughter with a bright future was dragged into a violent feud arising from a "world that was not her world". Ashley was shot dead inside her own home in Old Swan, Liverpool, as part of a plot to kill her boyfriend Lee Harrison, who had made dangerous enemies even amongst former friends.
Both Julie and Rob said the deep concerns about threats to Harrison, which Ashley had shared with friends in text and voice messages revealed during at trial over her murder, were a shock and have been painful to listen to. Julie said: "I knew he didn't have a conventional job shall we say. You know he didn't have a nine to five job. I'll be honest, I didn't know what he was up to, I still don't know the whole truth of it, what he was doing. I was never happy about it.
Lee Harrison (left) with Niall Barry (PA)
Ashley Dale was found with a gunshot wound in the back garden of her home in Old Swan, Liverpool, on August 21 (PA)"Ashley was very career driven, you know Ashley was working up to become a chartered environmental health officer, she was working to do her portfolio, she got up every morning and she went to work every single day the whole time her and Lee were together.
"I used to tell her on a regular basis I wasn't happy about her being with someone like that, by someone like that I mean someone who didn't have the same hopes and dreams as what she did. But unfortunately she just fell in love with the wrong person and he didn't love her."
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Ashley, 28, was working towards her qualification as a chartered environmental health officer, putting the finishing touches on her portfolio, and working hard in her job at Knowsley Council. For her, life was about having fun at music festivals, spending time with her younger sisters, working hard and planning her future - which seemed bright. But as the trial heard, during that time Harrison was living an entirely different kind of life - running with an organised crime group known as the Hillsiders.
The family of Ashley Dale pictured arriving at Liverpool Crown Court (Liverpool Echo)While Julie and Rob had concerns about Harrison's lifestyle and behaviour, and told Ashley so, they were totally unaware of the danger she was in. Julie said: "The last year really has been unbearable, it really has. Not just having to deal with the fact that Ashley is not here any more, you know she has passed away. But the whole details, and the whole how it happened and everything else being thrust into this public arena.
"I described it like I feel I'm having an out of body experience, living someone else's life, and I don't know if it will ever feel real. Obviously I know Ashley isn't coming back again, I know I am never going to see her again, but in terms of how it's happened I don't think I am ever going to be able to accept it and it will never make any sense to me."
Ashley Dale’s mother Julie Dale and stepfather Rob Jones (Liverpool Echo)For Julie, from the moment the sickening news brought her world crashing down, she had no doubt why death had been brought to Ashley's door. Julie said: "Straight away, when the police officers knocked at our house at quarter to three in the morning on the 21st August, we said straight away 'where's her boyfriend? It's got to be something to do with him. It's not just a random attack someone doesn't just break into someone's home, and kill them. It's got to be to do with him'."
Miss Dale was shot dead at home on August 21 last year with a court having 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.
Four of six men on trial were found guilty by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday 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 and conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon, a Skorpion sub-machine gun, and ammunition.