A council employee was shot lifeless after a row at Glastonbury music pageant reignited a feud, a courtroom has heard.
Ashley Dale, 28, was hit within the stomach by a bullet fired from a machine gun at her residence in Liverpool on 21 August final 12 months.
Opening the trial of the 5 males accused of her homicide at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday, Paul Greaney KC stated: “There can, suggests the prosecution, be no doubt that Ashley’s death was murder.
“She was shot intentionally and, certainly, mercilessly by a person who entered her residence aspiring to kill.”
He informed the courtroom Miss Dale had attended Glastonbury pageant in June 2022 along with her boyfriend Lee Harrison.
Four of the lads accused of her homicide – Sean Zeisz, 28, Niall Barry, 26, Ian Fitzgibbon, 28 and James Witham, 41 – have been additionally current on the pageant.
The jury heard Zeisz was assaulted at Glastonbury and his attackers included a person referred to as Jordan Thompson.
Following the assault, Zeisz’s girlfriend Olivia McDowell stayed with Mr Thompson, Miss Dale and Mr Harrison, compounding Zeisz’s “loss of face”, Mr Greaney added.
The courtroom heard that within the following weeks, Barry sided with Zeisz as he already had a “longstanding antagonism” in the direction of Mr Harrison, who Mr Greaney stated gave the impression to be concerned in a “world of criminality”.
Mr Greaney continued: “Niall Barry used these new events at Glastonbury to reignite that old feud.”
He stated that on August 20, Fitzgibbon, Zeisz and Barry dispatched “foot soldiers” Witham and the fifth defendant – Joseph Peers, 29 – armed with a Skorpion sub-machine gun to kill Mr Harrison at his residence and “to deal with anyone that got in their way, leaving behind no witnesses”.
Miss Dale, whose relations wiped away tears at occasions in the course of the opening, was on the couple’s residence on Leinster Road along with her canine on the night time of the assault, whereas Mr Harrison was out.
The jury was informed Witham admitted the manslaughter of Miss Dale, however stated he shot her accidentally within the early hours of 21 August having gone to “send a message” to Mr Harrison following a dispute about drug dealing in North Wales.
Mr Greaney stated: “It was James Witham who forced the front door to Leinster Road, James Witham who entered the house and James Witham who proceeded to open fire on Ashley, shooting and killing her.
“James Witham then walked upstairs and right into a bed room, the place he fired 5 bullets into the wall. He did that, the prosecution suggests, to ship a agency message to Lee Harrison. That message was that he, Lee Harrison, had been the principal goal of this assault and he too ought to be lifeless, together with Ashley.”
The courtroom heard Peers drove the gunman to Miss Dale’s deal with in a Hyundai.
All 5 deny murdering Miss Dale and likewise deny conspiracy to homicide Lee Harrison and conspiracy to own a prohibited weapon, a Skorpion sub-machine gun, and ammunition.
A sixth defendant, Kallum Radford, 25, denies helping an offender.
Source: information.sky.com”