Two appear in court over death of council worker Ashley Dale

Niall Barry, 26, and Sean Zeisz, 27, appeared at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court.

General view of Liverpool crown court (Dave Thompson/PA) (PA Archive)

Two men have appeared in court charged with the murder of a council worker.

Ashley Dale, 28, was found with a gunshot wound in the back garden of her home in Old Swan, Liverpool, on August 21 last year.

Niall Barry, 26, and Sean Zeisz, 27, appeared at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday afternoon charged with her murder.

Barry, of Moscow Drive, Tuebrook, and Zeisz, of Longreach Road, Huyton both appeared via videolink.

They confirmed their names and dates of birth during the hearing, which lasted a few minutes.

Chair of the magistrates’ bench Davina Halstead said: “This is an indictable offence, as magistrates we have no power to consider bail today.”

The defendants were remanded in custody to appear at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday.

James Witham, 40, of Ashbury Road, Huyton, and Joseph Peers, 28, of Woodlands Road, Roby, have already been charged with Ms Dale’s murder.

The pair, who are also charged with possession of a firearm with intent, appeared before Liverpool Crown Court earlier this month and were remanded in custody ahead of a plea and trial preparation hearing on June 30.

A trial date was set for October 3.

Kallum Radford, 25, has been charged with assisting an offender and is due to appear at Liverpool Crown Court on March 1.

Ms Dale, an environmental health officer for Knowsley Council, is not believed to have been the intended target of the shooting.

Her death was one of three gun killings within a week in Liverpool last year, with nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel killed in her home in Dovecot on August 22, and 22-year-old Sam Rimmer shot in Dingle on August 16.