The four killers of Ashley Dale who was shot dead at her home have been given life sentences at Liverpool Crown Court.
Joseph Peers, 29, Niall Barry, 26, Sean Zeisz, 28, and James Witham, 41, were given minimum terms of between 41 and 47 years at Liverpool Crown Court for the murder of the 28-year-old , who was killed with a machine gun.
The four men had been on the hunt for Miss Dale's boyfriend Lee Harrison when they forced their way into her Old Swan home in the early hours of August 21 last year, and opened fire with a Skorpion submachine gun.
The trial heard that the shooting came after a feud involving the defendants and Mr Harrison, which the prosecution alleged "reignited" at the Glastonbury festival in June 2022.
During the festival, Barry was heard threatening to stab Mr Harrison and Zeisz was assaulted by a group said to include Jordan Thompson - a friend of Mr Harrison's and member of the Hillside organised crime group with which he was associated.
Voicenotes and messages sent to friends by Ms Dale in the two months before her death were played during the trial describing the fall-out, which intensified when mutual friend Rikki Warnick took his own life in July last year.
The court heard that all the defendants had been together in a flat in Huyton, Merseyside, on the evening of August 20 before "foot soldiers" Witham and Peers left shortly after 10pm to carry out the shooting.
Witham claimed he had acted alone and had gone to the house to send a "warning" to Mr Harrison, who he claimed was trying to steal drug customers in North Wales.
He told the jury he believed the house was empty when he fired the shots.
The prosecution alleged Witham was the "fall guy" and was lying to get his co-defendants "out of it".
Mr Harrison, who did not co-operate with police following his girlfriend's death, was out on the night of the murder and has since spent time in Dubai, the court heard.
