Ashley Dale: Men accused of plotting to murder woman shot with machine gun were ‘bunch of stoners’, court told

Environmental health worker Ashley Dale, 28, was shot with a Skorpion machine gun in her home in Old Swan, Liverpool

The men accused of plotting to murder a woman shot with a machine gun in her home were a “bunch of stoners”, a court has been told.

Environmental health worker Ashley Dale, 28, was shot with a Skorpion machine gun in Old Swan, Liverpool, in the early hours of August 21 last year after an alleged feud between the men accused of her murder and her partner Lee Harrison.

Gunman James Witham, 41, admits the manslaughter of Miss Dale but has told the court he did not know she was in the house when he forced his way in and opened fire.

The prosecution allege he and fellow “foot soldier” Joseph Peers, 29, were dispatched from a flat in Huyton, where “organisers” Niall Barry, 26, Sean Zeisz, 28, and Ian Fitzgibbon, 28, were just after 10pm on August 20.

In his closing speech at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, Adam Davis KC, defending Zeisz, told the jury: “This is not some tea-sipping cabal plotting the demise of Lee Harrison.

The scar gun-related crime has left on this city no doubt runs very deep

Stan Reiz KC, defending Barry

“This is a bunch of stoners sitting around taking drugs, drinking, snoozing, watching the boxing.”

Stan Reiz KC, defending Barry, told the jury not to use their verdicts to “send out a message” about gun crime.

He said: “The scar gun-related crime has left on this city no doubt runs very deep.

“You may understandably feel you’ve had enough. Perhaps it’s crossed your minds the power you have in this case is enough to send out a message it will no longer be tolerated.”

He told jurors the issue in the case is not whether society should tolerate gun crime.

He added: “Serious criminal cases such as this one are just too important to be decided on either sympathy or prejudice.”

The about-turn the Crown need you to make to turn Ian Fitzgibbon into a callous murderer is the most acrobatic of turns, we would submit, that any jury has been asked to achieve in many a long day

John Cooper KC, representing Fitzgibbon

John Cooper KC, representing Fitzgibbon, said the defendant, who told the jury Barry threatened to stab Mr Harrison at Glastonbury festival, now faces “the dangerous allegation of (being a) grass”.

He said the prosecution case is that, in the two months between Glastonbury and Miss Dale’s death, Fitzgibbon turned into a “bloody, callous, notorious murderer”.

He said: “The prosecution are trying to find a reason why Ian Fitzgibbon should, after 10 years of friendship, choose to become centrally involved in a plot, which he supported, to kill Lee Harrison and any other witnesses.”

He added: “The about-turn the Crown need you to make to turn Ian Fitzgibbon into a callous murderer is the most acrobatic of turns, we would submit, that any jury has been asked to achieve in many a long day.”

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

Kallum Radford, 26, denies assisting an offender.

The trial will continue on Tuesday.