Ashley Dale killers desperately called on mums to try and get away with murder
Two of Ashley Dale's killers desperately used their mums to give evidence to support them as they tried to deny murdering her.
The 28-year-old was shot dead in her own home in the Old Swan area of Liverpool in the early hours of August 21 last year. James Witham, Joseph Peers, Niall Barry and Sean Zeisz were unanimously convicted of her murder last week following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
They were also found guilty of conspiracy to murder Ms Dale's boyfriend Lee Harrison and conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon, namely a Skorpion submachine gun, and ammunition with intent to endanger life. Ian Fitzgibbon was cleared of these three charges while a sixth defendant, Kallum Radford, was acquitted of assisting an offender.
Peers and Zeisz both called on their own mothers to give evidence from the witness box as part of their defence cases. The parents of Peers claimed that he had been watching boxing while Zeisz's mum alleged that he had eaten a Sunday roast the following day and they had chatted about an upcoming family wedding.
Joseph Peers (PA)
Sean Zeisz (PA)Peer's mum and dad both took the stand and claimed that he had been at their home in his pyjamas watching the Anthony Joshua v Oleksandr Usyk fight at the time of the shooting. Lesley McMahon said that she had gone upstairs to bed at around 7pm or 8pm on August 20, 2022 and was "on me phone, doing a word search or just watching a bit of telly". She then recalled her son arriving home shortly after 11pm.
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Mrs McMahon said: "I could hear the television downstairs, the boxing was on. The fight, everyone was wanting to watch the fight, the telly was on quite loud to be fair. I could hear him in the kitchen with his dad. He come upstairs with a cup of tea for me and sat on the bed.
"He went into his own room, I think he then got changed. He come back in me room and I think asked for a lighter. He just put his pyjamas on, that’s what he does, make himself a tea and toast, and that’s it for the night. Sometimes he might stay up late and take the dog for a walk.
"I could hear them, they were excited. The way you do with the boxing, his dad and Joseph. He come upstairs probably later on, after the boxing. I put the (CCTV) camera on, I flipped over and I seen someone knocking. The dogs were barking. We’ve got a guard dog, all she does is bark. I shouted Joseph. He’s opened his window and looked out."
Peers' counsel Peter Wright KC asked: "How common is it for anyone to be round at that time?" Mrs McMahon said: "It’s very uncommon. No one would knock at that time. It was some time after one o'clock, in the early hours. I’ve sat up and shouted Joe and I looked at the time and what not.
"The boxing finished probably, 20 past 12, quarter past 12. It had probably been half an hour, 40 minutes after. Joe’s just gone into his bedroom and opened the window and looked out. He shouted ‘giz a minute’ or something to that effect. I heard Joseph back in his closet, he’s come in me room. He’s been changed into different clothes. He said he was going out. He actually went downstairs but come back up and asked me for a packet of cigarettes, I remember saying 'I want them back in the morning when you go the shop'."
Mrs McMahon reported that their CCTV system had been damaged when the family had to temporarily move out of the address due to building work, and that footage from that night could not be recovered and was "sadly lost". She said: "Me husband went to find it. He brought it out the storage. When we put it on, it wasn’t working. We replaced it. I just put it in the skip at the recycling centre. I didn’t think we needed it. If I’d been a bit more on the ball, if I knew everything what was going on, I’d have probably kept it."
Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, then accused her of "telling a pack of lies", reported the Liverpool Echo. Mrs McMahon replied: "You prove that." Mr Greaney asked: "Was there anything special about that night? Was it a wedding anniversary? Was it your birthday? Such that it might stick in your mind?" Mrs McMahon said: "It’s probably been on a Saturday. My grandchild normally comes, she was on holiday, it was my birthday five days previous."
Mr Greaney continued: "I want to understand if there was anything unusual or special about the day that would make it stick in your mind." Mrs McMahon: "It was just the same Saturday as the week before and the week before that." Mr Greaney: "You gave a witness statement on July 20, 2023, 11 months after the events we’re speaking about. Would you help the jury how you were able to recall the detail of a Saturday that was nothing special?"
Mrs McMahon: "There was no change in it, there was no change in my routine on that day. My life is still the same and that’s how it carried on. There was nothing, I remembered it. I remember quite a lot of things. You've called me a liar. When you’ve got evidence to put before the court to say I'm a liar, you can call me one.”
Mr Greaney: "That’s the same day your husband gave a witness statement. Have you discussed the events of that day with Thomas?" Mrs McMahon: "No, I have not. When we give statements, we were not together." Mr Greaney: "Can I just understand? Your son has been arrested and charged with murder, you have never spoken to your husband about the events on that night?"
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Mrs McMahon: "Of the night the young lady got murdered? Everybody in Liverpool spoke about it, we spoke how sad it was yeah." Mr Greaney: "Have you spoken about when happened in your house that night?" Mrs McMahon: "No, because what happened in my house that night is that same as what happened every night. Alls I'm doing is confirming to you is they were watching the boxing together that night."
Mr Greaney: "There isn’t any need to be cross. I am just establishing whether you talked to your husband about the events that night." Mrs McMahon: "I’m just nervous." She appeared to become tearful in the witness box at one stage and later told the prosecutor: "You put the evidence there to say I’m a bare faced liar. You're making assumptions about me - don’t. When you have evidence to say ‘Mrs McMahon, you’re a liar’, you can do so. I’m sorry."
Peers' father Thomas McMahon was then called to give evidence to the jury. He agreed that his son had arrived home to watch the boxing, while also stating that their CCTV system only retained video footage for a period of 14 days.
Zeisz's mum meanwhile backed up his account that he had visited her home for a Sunday roast the day after the shooting. The crown's case had been that he was helping to move the car used by the killers to a driveway in St Helens at around this time. Angela Jones, a domestic assistant at Broadgreen Hospital, told the court: "I’d sent Sean a message in the morning to see if he wanted some Sunday dinner. I was doing lamb and he loved lamb."
The mother-of-three reported that she had finished work at 1pm, with Sunday dinner being served around 4pm. Mrs Jones said Zeisz visited for "maybe an hour, hour-and-a-half" and discussed his cousin's upcoming wedding in Ibiza, adding: "Sean was gonna be an usher at the wedding. He wasn’t overly keen on the shoes. I persuaded him, you’ll be fine, everyone else will be wearing them."
His brief Adam Davis KC asked: "Was there anything unusual about that Sunday?" Mrs Jones replied: "Not that I recall." She also said that Zeisz would visit for Sunday lunch "a lot" and that he was "always welcome". Mr Greaney then put to her in cross-examination: "We know he had a Mercedes. He obviously liked his clothes. He told us about some very expensive flip flops he had.
"All of those things cost money, don’t they? In summer last year, where did your son tell you he was getting his money from?" Mrs Jones said: "I didn’t ask him." Mr Greaney continued: "He had no job, no obvious source of income, yet he had all this stuff. Did you not say, 'Sean, how are you funding this?',"
Mrs Jones responded: "He wouldn’t have told me anyway, so I never asked." The prosecutor asked: "When was it that you were first asked by Sean, or anyone else, to think back to August 21? When did someone first say, help us with what you can remember?"
Mrs Jones said: "I can’t recall." Mr Greaney: "Was it quite recently?" Mrs Jones: "I can’t recall." Mr Greaney: "I’m going to ask you to try to recall. How long ago was it you were asked to think back to August last year?" Mrs Jones: "Maybe the February." Mr Greaney: "About six months after these events?" Mrs Jones: "Maybe, yeah."
Mr Greaney: "You were thinking back six months to a Sunday in circumstances in which Sean often came to your house on a Sunday? In which your nephew’s wedding had been discussed a number of times?" Mrs Jones: "Yes." Mr Greaney: "Let’s accept that you have accurately recalled Sunday, August 21. How did Sean seem to be during that afternoon?"
Mrs Jones: "He was a lot quieter, but we were discussing about these shoes. He didn’t want to wear the shoes, that’s why I thought he was quieter, I was talking him into it." Mr Greaney: "Earlier that day a young woman, Ashley Dale, had been shot dead in her own home. That afternoon, Sean was talking about the shoes he was going to be wearing at the wedding?" Mrs Jones: "Yes."
Mr Greaney told jurors during the prosecution's opening last month that gunman Witham and "driver" Peers, were "dispatched" to Leinster Road to assassinate Harrison and "leave no witnesses". They had allegedly received their orders from Barry, Zeisz and Fitzgibbon - who were said to have been "directing operations" from a flat on Pilch Lane in Huyton.
The court heard that, at around 11.40pm on August 20 2022, two men approached Ashley’s white Volkswagen T-Roc car - which was parked outside the house - and slashed its tyres, causing the alarm to sound, in an effort to "lure" the occupants out. But it is thought Ashley believed the alarm had been set off by heavy rain and, as a result, did not leave her home, where she was spending the evening alone with her dachshund Darla.
Mr Greaney said: "The men who had damaged the car were not deterred. Fifty minutes later, at about 12.30am, they returned. This time, they were not to be diverted from their intention to kill. One of the men approached the front door of 40 Leinster Road and he kicked it in.
"Ashley plainly became aware of what was happening. She screamed and fled towards the back door of the house, but the man entered the house and he pursued her. He was armed with a machine gun and opened fire. Ashley was struck by a bullet - it passed through her abdomen, causing catastrophic damage."
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