October 13th 2023.
James Witham has admitted to the manslaughter of Ashley Dale, but denies murdering her. Today at Liverpool Crown Court, evidence was presented that two days after the shooting, a substantial sum of money had been deposited into Witham's bank account.
Ashley Dale, a 28 year old environmental health worker, had been killed in her home in Old Swan, Liverpool, in the early hours of August 21. Witham had been the one to pull the trigger of the Skorpion machine gun used. Four other defendants - Niall Barry, Sean Zeisz, Ian Fitzgibbon, and Joseph Peers - also denied the murder charge.
The court heard that the same day as the shooting, Peers had booked a two night stay at the Mercure Hotel in St Helens, and that CCTV had caught Witham and Peers checking in around 8.30pm, and checking out around 11am two days later. During that time, Witham had gone to Liverpool One shopping centre, where he spent £245 in cash at Footasylum on trainers and socks, and £129 on his card in the Everton store. He then deposited £1,000 into his bank account. Detective sergeant Graeme Sutton revealed that phone evidence showed Witham and Peers travelling to Scotland that same day.
Evidence provided by the prosecution included damage to the tyres of Ms Dale's car, which had allegedly been slashed at 11.40pm the night before the shooting, as well as damage to her front door, which had been kicked in. Fitzgibbon had flown from Birmingham Airport to Dubai with his sister Claudia at 10.22am on August 23. CCTV had then showed Barry and his girlfriend Lucy Worley arriving at the Formby Hall Golf Resort and Spa on August 24, followed by eight armed officers from Merseyside Police entering the hotel, who located Barry. Witham had been seen on CCTV buying trainers from Taskers Sports in Aintree on August 20, which police found a footprint at the scene of Ms Dale's shooting that matched the shoes.
The defendants, all from Merseyside, deny charges of conspiring to murder Mr Harrison, as well as conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon, a Skorpion sub-machine gun, and ammunition, and the murder of Miss Dale. Kallum Radford, 26, of no fixed address, also denies assisting an offender.
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