Gunman who killed Ashley Dale ‘lying to get co-defendants out of it’, court told

The environmental health worker was shot in her home in Old Swan, Liverpool, in the early hours of August 21 last year.

Ashley Dale, 28, was found with a gunshot wound in the back garden of her home on August 21 last year (Merseyside Police/PA)

A gunman accused of murdering a 28-year-old woman in her home is lying to get his co-defendants “out of it”, a court has been told.

Environmental health worker Ashley Dale was shot with a Skorpion machine gun in her home in Old Swan, Liverpool, in the early hours of August 21 last year.

In his closing speech at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, said James Witham, 41, who accepts firing the shot which killed Miss Dale, was attempting to be the “fall guy” for his co-defendants.

He said Witham, who admits manslaughter, and Joseph Peers, 29, were the “foot soldiers” in the plot, which is alleged to have been formed due to a feud between the defendants and Miss Dale’s partner Lee Harrison.

James Witham knows his own position in this trial is hopeless and his aim in advancing his lying account is to try and get the others out of it

Paul Greaney KC

Mr Greaney described Niall Barry, 26, as the “malign presence” for what happened at the home on Leinster Road and said he had “major beef” with Lee Harrison.

Sean Zeisz and Ian Fitzgibbon, both 28, were also “organisers” in the plot, Mr Greaney said.

He said: “James Witham knows his own position in this trial is hopeless and his aim in advancing his lying account is to try and get the others out of it.”

He said Witham’s account, which included speaking to brothers, both called Dave, and learning of a machine gun buried in Stadt Moers Park, Huyton, which he then dug up using a jug, would be “laughable if this case were not so serious”.

He added: “The emergence of two brothers, Big Dave and Little Dave, and James Witham’s suggestion he had dug up a machine gun with a jug were moments of pure farce and I have no doubt every single one of us within the courtroom will remember Big and Little Dave and the digging jug for the rest of our lives.

“They revealed a man prepared to say anything, no matter how ridiculous, to escape the consequences of what he had done.”

He said the “spectacle” of Witham telling “absurdity after absurdity”, “wallowing in self pity” and making speeches about the innocence of his co-defendants showed the jury “the truth in this case”.

He added: “James Witham executed Ashley. He pursued her as she fled. He shot and killed her quite deliberately as part of a plot to which he had signed up.”

On Friday, the jury also heard closing speeches on behalf of Peers and Kallum Radford, 26, who is accused of assisting an offender by helping to store the Hyundai used in the murder.

Steven Swift, representing Radford, said the defendant had been “thrown under the bus and used”.

He said: “You may think Kallum Radford stands in stark contrast to the other defendants in this case.

“You’re dealing with a man here, you may think, without gang allegiances, without involvement in fall-outs, not involved in threats, or in weapons.”

Barry, Zeisz, Fitgibbon, Witham and Peers deny the murder of Miss Dale, conspiracy to murder Mr Harrison and conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon – a Skorpion sub-machine gun – and ammunition.

Kallum Radford, 26, denies assisting an offender.

The trial will continue on Monday.