Mother of man accused of Ashley Dale murder cries in court as she’s accused of telling ‘pack of lies’

Lesley McMahon tells court her son had made her a cup of tea at home hours before shooting

The mother of a man charged with the murder of Ashley Dale has cried in court after being accused of telling a “pack of lies”.

Joseph Peers, 29, is accused of being the driver in the killing of the 28-year-old environmental health officer, who was shot with a Skorpion machine pistol at home in Old Swan, Liverpool, in the early hours of 21 August last year.

Peers, a gas fitter, has told a trial at Liverpool Crown Court he was at his home, on Woodlands Road, Roby, with his parents watching a boxing fight between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk at the time.

On Wednesday, the defendant’s mother Lesley McMahon told the court she had been in her bedroom just after 11pm on 20 August when Peers returned home and brought her a cup of tea.

Cross-examining her, Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, said: “Sadly, what you have done is tell this jury a pack of lies.”

Mrs McMahon replied: “You prove that.”

Ashley Dale is not believed to have been the intended target of the killing (PA)

She later added: “When you’ve got evidence to put before the court to call me a liar you may call me that.”

Following questioning about whether she had spoken to her husband about the timings of what happened on the night of the shooting, Mrs McMahon said she was “nervous” and appeared to become upset, wiping away tears with a tissue.

Ashley Dale died on August 21 last year (PA)

She told the court she had not viewed CCTV from the family home which would show her son returning home, and the recorder had since been damaged in a house move and was now in landfill.

Ms McMahon said she loved her children “dearly” and, when asked if she was protective of them, said: “Every mother’s protective, yes.”

Peers’s father Thomas McMahon also gave evidence and told the court he had watched the boxing with his son that night.

Bodycam footage of Joseph Peers being arrested on suspicion of the murder of Ashley Dale (PA Media)

The court heard defendant Kallum Radford, 26, who denies assisting an offender by helping to store the car used in the shooting, would not be giving evidence in the trial.

Steven Swift, defending Radford, told the jury: “There is no further evidence to call on his behalf.”

Peers and co-defendants James Witham, 41, Niall Barry, 26, Sean Zeisz, 28, and Ian Fitzgibbon, 28, deny the murder of Ms Dale, conspiracy to murder her partner Lee Harrison and conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon, a Skorpion sub-machine gun, and ammunition.

Witham admits manslaughter.