22 November 2023 , 12:47
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The gunman who shot Ashley Dale stormed out of the dock as her weeping mother told him "I hope my baby girl's face haunts you every night".
A huge turnout of Ashley's family and friends turned out to watch four men, convicted of her murder, sentenced today. James Witham, 41, Joseph Peers, 29, Niall Barry, 26, and Sean Zeisz, 28, were all jailed for life at Liverpool Crown Court.
Ashley's mum, Julie, 46, broke down as she told the four they were "monsters" and that she would never ever forgive them. She said: "I will never ever forgive you, for the life sentence you have gave to me and my family.
"Although I can now rest knowing that you monsters are going to pay for what you have done to me and my family. And that you too have ruined your own lives and your family’s lives. I hope my words haunt you all forever and you James Witham; I hope when you go to sleep at night you too see my baby girl’s face as I do every single night."
Ashley was gunned down at her home (PA)
James Witham (PA)The court heard how drug dealers, Barry and Zeisz had organised the murder plot with "hitman for hire" Witham and getaway driver, Peers. Witham and Peers were sent to Ashley's house to execute her boyfriend Lee Harrison, over a drugs feud.
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But when Witham found kicked down the front door and found Ashley home alone in her pyjamas, he chased her firing 10 bullets with a Skorpion submachine gun.
Neighbours heard the shots and Ashley screaming for her life before police found her dead in her own back garden last August.
Ashley's loved ones wept as Julie described the horrific night of Ashley's murder last August.
Sean Zeisz (PA)
Niall Barry (PA)Julie said she fell to the floor when police told her that Ashley had been shot dead in her own home in Liverpool, Merseyside. She said: "My life might as well have ended there too. Those three little words had just turned my lights out forever; time has since stood still.
"Our lives had just been turned upside down in the blink of an eye. She can’t be, we only spoke a few hours ago and she was fine. Ashley’s two younger sisters were sleeping peacefully in their beds upstairs. Then the reality set in, that I was going to have to tell them, their big sister they so adored was no longer here.
"Those poor innocent girls, exposed to this horrific act. How can I tell them some evil person has done this to their defenceless sister who was home alone in her place of safety. A place where they regularly spent nights staying over. Sleeping in the bedroom where five shots had been fired, above the bed where they had slept only one week before. The horrific thought came to my mind, that we could have been here dealing with multiple murders. My whole family could have been killed that night.
Joseph Peers (PA)"No thought given to who could have been in the house, one intention only: to kill." Witham, Barry, Peers and Zeisz were all given life sentences. Barry who orchestrated the murder plot received the longest sentence, with 47 years behind bars before he is eligible for parole.
Witham who pulled the trigger will spend 43 years in jail before he is eligible for parole. Zeisz and Peers received life sentences of 42 and 41 years respectively. They will all be in their 70s before they can even be considered for release.
But Ashley's family said they have received the life sentence and said they still feel they will never get justice without having Ashley back. Her dad, Steven Dunne told the court his PTSD is horrific after losing not one but two children to fatal shootings in Merseyside. Ashley's little brother, Lewis was just 16 when he was killed in a case of mistaken identity eight years ago.
Julie Dale and partner Rob Jones (Liverpool Echo)He described sitting in the exact same courtroom at the trial of Lewis' killers with Ashley exactly eight years ago this month. In a victim impact statement read to the court on his behalf, he said: "Ashley sobbed uncontrollably when the foreman delivered those verdicts; she had to live through the trauma caused not only by Lewis’ murder, but by the subsequent trial which those responsible forced upon us all by failing to admit responsibility for what they had done.
"I am now sitting with my one remaining child, having been put through the trauma of yet another trial, listening to those verdicts being read out in relation to Ashley’s murder. I have lost another child; a victim of big egos running around the city with powerful guns, involved in petty feuds and killing innocent people."
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Mr Dunne said Christmas 2022 should have been the happiest time of his life as he welcomed his first ever grandchild to the world.
But instead, just months after his own first child had been brutally murdered, he sat alone contemplating taking his own life in grief.
"I sat in with the curtains and blinds shut, listening to songs Ashley enjoyed; grieving, crying, and contemplating dark thoughts of whether I can live this life anymore; whether I would have the strength to go through the coming years, knowing that I’d have to do so without two of my children."