Ashley Dale: An innocent victim of gun crime
Ashley Dale was shot dead at her home in Old Swan last August. From the start of their investigations, detectives at Merseyside Police said they believed the attack on the address on Leinster Road was targeted although they say they didn't believe that 28-year-old Ashley was the intended target.
Transcript
00:00 Like I say, she was very driven and yeah, she made me proud every day.
00:09 Officers were called to an address in Old Swan around 12.40am on August 21st 2022 following
00:15 reports of a concern for a woman at the property.
00:19 Emergency services attended and found Ashley Dale in the rear garden of the property with
00:23 gunshot wounds to her body.
00:26 Police provided CPR at the scene and Ashley was taken to hospital but sadly died a short
00:31 time later.
00:33 The family of 28-year-old Ashley described her as a hard-working young woman who had
00:37 her entire life ahead of her.
00:39 She had just been promoted at her job.
00:41 She was an environmental health officer with Knowsley Council, however, her life was tragically
00:45 cut short before she was able to take up her new role.
00:50 She was a happy, normal, young woman.
00:56 She was career driven, happy in her job and her chosen career.
01:04 She just went about her life in a normal way really.
01:10 She just wanted the same things as most young women of that age wanted.
01:16 She was happy, she was family orientated, loved her two sisters, her younger sisters
01:22 which me and Rob have got together.
01:25 She loved her house, she was very house proud, she loved her clothes, she loved fashion.
01:32 Just very average and normal, whatever that is really.
01:36 A total of 15 arrests were made during Merseyside Police's investigation into her death.
01:41 The force released footage of a car believed to have been driven in the area shortly before
01:46 the incident was reported.
01:48 Inquiries identified this as a grey Hyundai i30.
01:52 The clip shows this car in Page Moss earlier in the evening of the murder.
01:59 In my first appeal, I asked for people to come forward who were on foot in the street
02:06 in Leinster Road and that appeal still stands.
02:12 We know that there are still people in the community walking round, whether it be walking
02:17 home, maybe coming home from after being on a night out or just milling about in the street
02:23 at the time when this took place, which was at around half past midnight.
02:30 I still want those people to come forward and make contact with us.
02:35 From DNA and trawling through hundreds of hours of CCTV to seizing thousands of exhibits
02:40 of which over 300 were digital devices, it was established Ashley was not the intended
02:46 target of the shooting at her home on Leinster Road.
02:49 However, it was Ashley's own phone which was found just an arm's length away from her that
02:55 would prove to contain the most significant evidence of the events that led up to her
03:00 tragic murder.
03:06 It's the first time I have ever seen the evidence of the murder victim play such a crucial role
03:12 in a court case.
03:15 Ashley was narrating her own story and events that led up to her death.
03:19 There was barely a dry eye in the courtroom as her increased fear and anxiety was played
03:24 out through recovered voice notes from her phone.
03:27 28-year-old Ashley Dale was shot dead in Old Swan in 2022.
03:32 Ashley was at her home on Leinster Road on a Saturday night, cuddled up to her beloved
03:37 dog Dala.
03:39 Around 11.30pm, Saturday 20th August, a grey Hyundai i30 drove onto her road.
03:46 Three of the tyres on Ashley's car were damaged, causing the vehicle's alarm to go off.
03:51 In the early hours of Sunday morning, James Witham forced his way into her home, taking
03:56 the door down completely, only leaving the frame intact and indiscriminately firing a
04:02 number of shots towards Ashley before going upstairs to the spare bedroom and discharging
04:07 a further five rounds from a Scorpion submachine gun.
04:13 Ashley was subsequently found in the back garden with a fatal gunshot wound.
04:17 One of the key pieces of evidence that has come out throughout the trial is undoubtedly
04:22 Ashley's phone.
04:25 In my experience of criminal prosecutions, it has been unprecedented for a victim to
04:31 foretell her own death, which is effectively what she has done through the voice notes.
04:38 Ashley narrated her own story, starting from Glastonbury in June of 2022, right through
04:44 to just a few days before her death in August of 2022.
04:51 These voice notes were harrowing to listen to.
04:55 Ashley's boyfriend Lee Harrison had been the intended target of the gun attack after a
05:01 dispute with Niall Barry had been reignited at Glastonbury Festival earlier in 2022.
05:08 Harrison who was described in court as a drug dealer at odds with a rival gang was not there
05:13 at the time of the attack.
05:14 I wasn't aware of what he was involved in, but I'm not naive and I knew he didn't have
05:22 a nine to five job, shall we say.
05:26 In terms of, I did speak to Ashley on a regular basis that I wasn't happy that she was with
05:32 somebody like that.
05:34 She deserves so much better.
05:35 And when I say like that, you know, didn't have the hopes and dreams and the aspirations
05:39 that Ashley had.
05:41 And I used to tell her on a regular basis, you know, you could do so much better, but
05:46 she loved him.
05:47 She did.
05:48 She did love him.
05:49 I didn't have any concerns for her safety at all.
05:53 I just, you know, wasn't happy about her being with someone that didn't have a job.
05:58 And yeah, I wasn't fully aware of what he was involved in.
06:02 This was a senseless crime, taking the life of a young woman in her own home that's torn
06:07 a family apart.
06:11 Following a seven week trial at Liverpool Crown Court, four men were sentenced to a
06:16 total of 173 years in prison for the murder of Ashley Dale.
06:22 A jury found James Witham, Sean Zeiss, Niall Barry and Joseph Pears guilty of the murder
06:29 of the 28 year old who was fatally shot in her home in Leinster Road in August of 2022.
06:39 No one would ever account for someone coming and kicking your door down, half 12 and firing
06:43 15 bullets into your property.
06:46 It's a one in a billion type of thing.
06:50 It doesn't happen, but it has happened.
06:53 James Witham had previously admitted being the gunman who fired the fatal shot.
06:59 I'm angry at all of them because without every single one of them, you know, they've all
07:03 had a part to play in it.
07:05 Yeah, he's, you know, he's destroyed our lives.
07:09 He really has.
07:10 And we've not seen one ounce of remorse from him whatsoever during this trial.
07:14 You know, he's sat there and yeah, I've not seen one tear, one anything from any of them,
07:20 let alone James Witham.
07:23 He's not only took Ashley's life, he's took my life, he's took our lives, he's took my
07:29 daughter's lives.
07:30 He's essentially took his own life and his family's life because nothing's going to be
07:34 the same again, is it?
07:36 The four men were also found guilty of conspiracy to murder Ashley's boyfriend, Lee Harrison,
07:42 and conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon, namely a Scorpion submachine gun and ammunition
07:48 with intent to endanger life.
07:51 Ashley's boyfriend, Lee Harrison, chose not to cooperate with police during the investigation
07:56 into her murder.
07:58 Ashley loved him.
07:59 You know, there's no, you know, there's no, we know that.
08:02 We know they were together for five years.
08:05 I just cannot never, ever, ever get my head around how someone who supposedly loved her
08:12 back could treat her and us in that way.
08:16 You know, he's not even admitted that it was anything to do with him.
08:21 He's never came to me and even, you know, give me a reason why he felt like he couldn't
08:26 speak to the police, you know.
08:28 When passing sentencing, Judge Goose said, "I have been struck by the dignity you have
08:34 shown as a family and the way you expressed yourselves in the victim personal statements
08:40 was truly remarkable."
08:44 What the verdicts have undoubtedly shown is that the people of Merseyside will not tolerate
08:49 gun crime and particularly when the victim of this despicable attack was a young 28-year-old
08:55 woman with her whole life ahead of her.
09:00 I'm sure the verdicts will go some way to comforting Ashley's family, but ultimately
09:05 we must recognise now that as the prosecution has come to a close, this is only the start
09:12 for Ashley's family.
09:14 It should be noted here that with such high profile murders occurring within the space
09:19 of 48 hours of each other, this was an intense period for all of Merseyside Police.
09:25 In August of 2022, Liverpool was rocked with the news.
09:29 Three murders had taken place in the space of just one week.
09:33 Firstly, I want to reiterate that our thoughts and condolences are with the families of Olivia
09:40 Pratt-Corbell, Ashley Dale and Sam Rimmer.
09:45 Thank you for all coming today and for your continued support as we work to identify those
09:50 responsible for these callous and cold-blooded murders that have rocked our communities.
09:57 At 11.40pm on the 16th of August 2022, Sam Rimmer was on Lavrock Bank, dangled with a
10:02 group of friends on two electric bikes, drove into the cul-de-sac and fired a number of
10:06 shots towards the group.
10:08 As a result, Sam was injured and despite the best efforts of officers and ambulance staff,
10:14 he was sadly pronounced dead a short while later at hospital.
10:18 Although 10 arrests have been made so far, no one has been charged with his murder.
10:23 The day after Ashley Dale was murdered in her home in Old Swan, nine-year-old Olivia
10:28 Pratt-Corbell was shot dead by Thomas Cashman as he was chasing down his intended victim
10:34 in Dovecote on August 22nd 2022.
10:37 I think it's been shown over recent years the level of violence that criminals are willing
10:43 to use on Merseyside and by the nature of using weapons like scorpions that are capable
10:49 of such devastation, that shows what they're willing to do.
10:54 Police say information from the public is vital to the breakdown of organised crime
10:58 groups.
10:59 We are committed to targeting this level of criminality across the whole force area and
11:06 beyond.
11:07 We work with multiple partner agencies, we work with the community, we work with other
11:12 forces.
11:13 We're considered as outstanding in relation to how we deal with organised crime but we're
11:16 not resting on our laurels in relation to that.
11:20 In 2022 there were 49 firearm discharges in the region, Merseyside Police have been working
11:25 to reduce this.
11:27 January 2023 was the first calendar month when there were zero discharges since records
11:32 began.
11:33 This was then repeated for the months of June and September.
11:36 This investigation is a prime example that we will listen to our communities, we will
11:41 take seriously the information that people have to offer us, we will analyse it, review
11:46 it and take positive action.
11:49 I hope that today gives the reassurance to the public that we listen.
11:54 One firearms discharge on our streets is one too many, sadly too many lives have been lost
11:59 here on Merseyside as a result of gun crime.
12:04 Let this be a message to those intent on causing misery through the use of firearms and serious
12:09 organised crime that their criminal enterprise here in Merseyside will not be tolerated and
12:16 we will find you.
12:16 [BLANK_AUDIO]