The father of Ashley Dale said “history had repeated itself” when she was killed almost seven years after his youngest son was shot dead.
Ashley Dale, 28, was shot with a Skorpion machine gun in her home in Old Swan, Liverpool, in the early hours of August 21 last year, almost seven years after her half-brother Lewis Dunne, 16, was killed in a case of mistaken identity.
A statement from their father Steve Dunne was read at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday as James Witham, 41, Niall Barry, 26, Joseph Peers, 29, and Sean Zeisz, 28, were sentenced for Ms Dale’s murder.
Mr Dunne said when he heard the news of his daughter’s murder he felt he had “been confined to a living nightmare”.
He said: “I remember shouting ‘no’ for a long time at the top of my voice; I couldn’t believe it – history had repeated itself.
“My son, Lewis Dunne, had been shot dead seven years previous at only 16 years of age.
“He was shot at close range in the back with a shotgun in a case of mistaken identity; an innocent victim caught in the middle of a gang feud.”
Mr Dunne said he had spent seven years trying to put his “life back together” following Lewis’s death but he was “put back to day one” when Ms Dale was shot.
He added: “Ashley is the oldest of my three children, Lewis the youngest – both are now deceased.”
Mr Dunne described his daughter as beautiful, intelligent, charismatic and career driven.
He said Ms Dale had “sobbed uncontrollably” when three men were found guilty of Lewis’s murder in November 2016.
I have lost another child; a victim of big egos running around the city with powerful guns, involved in petty feuds and killing innocent people— Ashley Dale's father Steve Dunne
He said: “I am now sitting with my one remaining child, having been put through the trauma of yet another trial, listening to those verdicts being read out in relation to Ashley’s murder.
“I have lost another child; a victim of big egos running around the city with powerful guns, involved in petty feuds and killing innocent people.”
Mr Dunne said he had not seen “one single shred of remorse” from the defendants and felt they had behaved disrespectfully to the family.
He added: “These are clearly dangerous individuals, able and willing to deploy the most dangerous of automatic weapons to settle petty disputes, without any concern at all for those caught up in the crossfire.
“No family should ever have to go through what we have gone through; these men cannot be allowed to do this to anyone else.”
