22 November 2023 , 12:44
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In the early hours of August 21 last year, a gang member forced his way into the home of council worker Ashley Dale and gunned her down in cold blood.
Ten bullets were fired in her dining room, with one fatally hitting the 28-year-old in the abdomen as she stood by the back door, and five bullets were fired into the wall of an upstairs bedroom. Miss Dale ran for her life out into the backyard in a bid to escape.
After her neighbours raised the alarm, police arrived at the property in the Old Swan area of Liverpool, to find Miss Dale's beloved miniature Dachshund cowering in a corner of the living room, which was littered with bullet casings. The officer made their way outside to find Miss Ashley collapsed on the ground and attempted to resuscitate her, but it was too late. Her shocking death left her family horrified and in an 'unprecedented' first, the events that unfolded prior to the altercation were narrated by the innocent victim herself.
Council worker Ashley Dale (PA)
Lee Harrison (left) with Niall Barry (PA)As people were reluctant to provide evidence due to safety fears, Miss Dale's terrified voice notes sent to friends in the days before her murder helped bring her four killers to justice. During the murder trial, the jury heard how frightened the council worker had become amid a brewing feud between her partner of five years, Lee Harrison, and one of the defendants.
The court was also told of the harrowing last text she sent to her mother Julie when she and her dog, Darla, suspected something was taking hold outside her home - it turned out to be two of the killers trying to lure Harrison outside. In the opening of the trial, prosecutor Paul Greaney KC told the jury: "We should warn you now that listening to the voice notes is upsetting."
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The court heard she was not the intended target and was shot as a gunman burst in looking for her partner - but she was home alone watching TV with dog Darla when James Witham killed her with a Skorpion machine gun. Witham, 41, Niall Barry, 26, Sean Zeisz, 28, and Joseph Peers, 29, all denied her murder, with Witham admitting manslaughter.
On Monday, 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 of five years, Mr 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. A sixth man, Kallum Radford, was found not guilty of assisting an offender.
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.
They slashed her tyres, setting off her car alarm, in an effort to draw their target Mr Harrison from the house. After hearing her car alarm going off outside at around 11.40pm, she messaged her mother: "The rain just set my car alarm off x."
The last photograph Ashley took just moments before her murder (Liverpool Echo)
At just 28-years-old, Ashley was gunned down in her home by a drugs gang (Liverpool Echo)Her pooch grew restless and appeared to signal to Miss Dale that something was happening outside. The council worker took a photo of her cosying up to the dog, which she sent to her friend - which became the last photo she took. She wrote: "I've never known anything like it. She is scared of something outside."
When their plan failed, Witham kicked the door down, firing 10 bullets as he chased Miss Dale screaming through the house. Neighbours described hearing the screams before noticing a woman lying groaning in her back garden. Officers matched the footprint left on Miss Dale's door to a pair of trainers Witham had bought just days before.
During the trial, voice recordings made by Miss Dale before her death were 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". DCI Cath Cummings, the senior investigating officer on the case, said: "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."
And the frightful recordings had a tremendous impact on those in court, with her adding: "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." Olivia Cristinacce-Travis, a senior crown prosecutor on the case, echoed her comments.
She said: "In my experience of criminal prosecutions, it has been unprecedented for a victim to foretell her own death, which is effectively what she has done through the voice notes… These voice notes were harrowing to listen to and chilling when played to the jury."
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They described a growing feud between her boyfriend and one of the defendants, Barry, 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.
Family photo issued by Merseyside Police of Julie Dale and Ashley Dale (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, Miss Dale described her growing anxiety over her boyfriend's feud, telling her pals in one voice note that she was "always looking over her shoulder".
Speaking after the verdict, Miss 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. Mother Julie Dale, 46, said she was "very, very angry" towards Mr Harrison, who did not cooperate with police and is believed to have moved to Dubai. 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."
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. Detective Chief Inspector Cath Cummings 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."
On Wednesday, James Witham was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 43 years in prison. Joseph Peers was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 41 years in prison. Sean Zeisz was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 42 years in prison. And Niall Barry was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 47 years in prison. Altogether, the four thugs have been sentenced to a total of 173 years minimum in jail.