Ashley Dale trying to 'reach her only escape' when shot 'as target', court hears

A council worker killed in her own home was likely to have been shot at 'as a target' rather than 'just randomly', a firearms expert has told a court.

She is also likely to have been trying to reach her “only escape” when she was hit - with the gunman following her through her home, he added.

Ashley Dale, 28, was killed in Old Swan, Liverpool, in the early hours of 21 August 2022, after gunman James Witham, who admits manslaughter, kicked down her front door.

Witham, 41, and four other defendants - Niall Barry, 26, Sean Zeisz, 28, Ian Fitzgibbon, 28, and Joseph Peers, 29 - deny her murder, which is alleged to have happened following a feud with her partner Lee Harrison.

Firearms expert Andre de Villiers Horne showed Liverpool Crown Court a decommissioned Skorpion machine pistol of the type used in the shooting.

The court heard the weapon was capable of firing 850 to 900 rounds a minute, or 14 to 15 rounds a second.

Mr Horne told the jury he believed Miss Dale was facing the back door, which she later went through before being found by officers lying injured in the back yard of the house on Leinster Road.

He said the environmental health worker was likely to have been shot as she stood next to a bar stool in the kitchen, which was found to have a bullet inside.

Mr Horne said: “My explanation is that she was moving towards the rear door because that was her only route of escape.

“You have somebody standing in the hallway that had just broken down your front door, so you’re not going to move towards them.

“It is my view that Ashley’s movements were from wherever she was, most likely in the living room where the television was on, when the door was smashed down.

“She had then moved towards her only escape, the rear door, and the shooter followed the same route and fired shots in the direction that Ashley was attempting to escape."

Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, said: “Your view is the gunman is following the route that she’s taking and discharging the machine pistol as he does so?”

Mr Horne replied: “In my view that is the most likely explanation, yes.”

The witness said 10 fired cartridge cases were found in the downstairs of the terraced property and five bullet holes were found in the wall of an upstairs bedroom.

He said the shots which were fired downstairs were in the same direction, although he believed the gunman had moved between shots.

He said: “I would favour the proposition that perhaps they were fired at a target, as opposed to just randomly.”

Being cross-examined by Richard Pratt KC, defending Witham, Mr Horne said he was not able to exclude the possibility the gunman may have been firing at the building rather than an individual.

Forensic scientist Heather McKinlay told the court DNA found on a bullet casing under a bed upstairs had DNA that was one billion times more likely to have originated from Witham than from an unknown person.

Witham, of Huyton; Fitzgibbon, of St Helens; Zeisz of Huyton; Barry, of Tuebrook; and Peers, of Roby – all Merseyside – deny conspiracy to murder Mr Harrison and conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon, a Skorpion sub-machine gun, and ammunition, as well as the murder of Miss Dale.

Kallum Radford, 26, of no fixed address, denies assisting an offender.