Four men have been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Ashley Dale, who was shot dead in her Liverpool home in August of last year.
James Witham, 41, Joseph Peers, 29, Niall Barry, 26, and Sean Zeisz, 28, were found guilty on Monday at Liverpool crown court of the murder of the 28-year-old council worker.
Witham was jailed for a minimum of 43 years at Liverpool crown court on Wednesday.
Barry, who was described by the prosecution as the “malign presence” behind Dale’s killing, was sentenced to a minimum term of 47 years.
Peers, said to be a “foot soldier” who drove Witham to the scene, was sentenced to at least 41 years, while Zeisz, 28, who was accused of organising and encouraging the attack with Barry, was told he would serve a minimum of 42 years.
In victim impact statements read out in court, Dale’s father, Steven Dunne, described her as “a beautiful, intelligent, charismatic, career-driven, and family-oriented young woman”.
“She knew what she wanted in life and worked hard to achieve it; she always did.”
In an emotional tribute to her daughter on Wednesday morning, Dale’s mother, Julie Dale, said: “I hate that I won’t see her get married, have children and deliver her babies, become ‘Nanny Julie’ or grow old together like we always joked about.”
She told the court how police officers woke her up in the early hours of Sunday 21 August last year to tell her her daughter had been killed. “Two police officers stood at my door, an image that will haunt me for ever … ‘She’s passed away,’ they said. My life might as well have ended there too. Those three little words had just turned my lights out for ever; time has since stood still.”
“‘How? Why? What’s happened? Are you sure it’s Ashley?’ All those questions running round my mind. Our lives had just been turned upside down in the blink of an eye. She can’t be, we only spoke a few hours ago and she was fine.
“‘There’s been an incident at Ashley’s home. She has been shot,’ they said. Shaking, I fell to the floor.”
Speaking directly to her daughter’s killers, she added: “People speak about Justice for Ashley. But in my eyes there will never be justice, the only justice is that this would never have happened. Although I can now rest knowing that you monsters are going to pay for what you have done to me and my family. And that you too have ruined your own lives and your family’s lives. I hope my words haunt you all for ever and you James Witham; I hope when you go to sleep at night you too see my baby girl’s face as I do every single night.”
Witham, the man who pulled the trigger, was seen leaving the dock during Dale’s mother’s statement.
He had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter, having admitted being the man who fired the fatal shot.
Dale was watching TV at her home in the Old Swan area of Liverpool when Witham kicked down the door and fired shots with a Skorpion submachine gun, one of which struck Dale in the abdomen, causing “catastrophic damage”.
The trial of six men – two of whom were found not guilty of having a role in the crime – found that the murder was part of a long-running dispute between Dale’s boyfriend, Lee Harrison, and Barry, which had intensified during a fight at Glastonbury festival weeks before Dale was killed.
In what turned out to be crucial voice notes and messages played in court, Dale spoke to her friends about her “terrible anxiety” over the feud, and how she was constantly looking over her shoulder.
Barry, she said, was “on some pure rampage”, adding: “I have a bad, bad feeling about everything.”
