Murder accused threatened Ashley Dale's partner a month before her death

A drug dealer accused of murdering a council worker has told a court he asked the gunman "why the f*** have you done this" after hearing of the shooting.

Ashley Dale, 28, was shot with a Skorpion machine pistol at home in Old Swan, Liverpool, at about 12.30am on August 21 last year, by gunman James Witham, who admits manslaughter.

A trial at Liverpool Crown Court has heard that on the night of August 20, Witham, 41, had been with co-defendants Niall Barry, 26, Sean Zeisz, 28, Ian Fitzgibbon, 28, and Joseph Peers, 29, at a flat on Pilch Lane, Huyton, which Barry had been using to grow cannabis.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, Barry, who admitted being a drug dealer, said he had asked Witham to leave the flat because he was drunk and trying to order cocaine there.

Witham and Peers left at 10.10pm but returned at 1.25am on August 21, the court heard.

Barry said Witham seemed "quiet" and later said he had something to tell him, before disclosing he had "shot up" the house of Miss Dale's partner Lee Harrison.

He said he asked Witham "why the f have you done this?" and "what the f are you doing coming back here?" after he said what he had done.

Barry told the court Witham claimed Mr Harrison had been trying to "rob his graft", referring to a drugs supply line in Wales.

He said the following morning he saw a news story online which said a woman had been killed in a shooting.

He said: "I knew exactly what had gone on. My heart sunk at the time, my automatic reaction was that Ashley must have been sitting on the couch or whatever and a bullet had gone through the window and hit Ashley."

He told the court that later that morning he and Zeisz had left the flat with bags of cannabis to sell, before going to see Fitzgibbon and telling him what Witham had done.

He said: "I just didn't want to get caught up in this sh*** just from being around someone.

"I was aware he'd done it in his own car and I was aware I'd been in that car a couple days before."

When asked if he, Zeisz or Fitzgibbon had any suggestions about what they might do, Barry said: "To find James and tell him to hand himself in."

The court heard Barry made contact with a man known as Gus, who was helping him with a plan to leave the country.

Asked why, he said: "Just to distance myself from the whole situation to be honest."

Barry was arrested at Formby Hall hotel on August 24 with more than £10,200 in cash, which he said he had picked up from the sale of cannabis, the jury was told.

He told the court he did not know Witham was planning to carry out the shooting when he left the flat on August 20.

He said: "If I had any inkling, any idea, that anything like that was going to happen I wouldn't have let him leave that flat, even though he was doing my head in."

Barry, who admitted threatening to "punch" Mr Harrison in a phone call on July 26, said he had never agreed with anyone to murder Mr Harrison.

He said: "I'm not saying I'm some hardcase but he's half the size of me, I wouldn't need a gun to have a fight with him."

He added: "I've always got on with Ashley and she was a lovely girl."

Earlier on Wednesday, Barry had told the court he had been friends with Mr Harrison.

But he said they had stopped speaking in 2018 or 2019 because Mr Harrison was "hanging round" with people who had stolen £30,000 worth of cocaine and cannabis from him.

Phone records showed on July 26 last year Barry spoke to Mr Harrison twice on the phone.

He told the court he had phoned him after co-defendant James Witham, 41, said Mr Harrison had mentioned Barry's name in an argument about the theft of drugs.

Asked what he said to Mr Harrison during the phone call, Barry told the court: "I said 'I'll come round the estate and I'll punch your head in'."

Stan Reiz KC, defending Barry, asked: "That was a threat?"

Barry replied: "Yeah."

The court heard Barry went to Glastonbury festival 2022, which was also attended by Miss Dale and Mr Harrison.

He said while at the festival he was told Mr Harrison was there, along with people from group the Hillsiders, who were the people who had robbed Barry.

Barry said his response to being told that was: "I'm not arsed about them, I'll stab them up".

He said the threat was not specifically towards Mr Harrison and he was drunk and "shouldn't have said it".

The court heard Barry used the handle Bettertrunk on messaging platform EncroChat.

In messages sent on the platform, which were read to the court, he also referred to accessing guns.

He said: "I was just talking nonsense basically, I was just basically thinking I was hard. I was young, I was only 22."

He said in April 2020, when the messages were sent, he had access to a Skorpion machine gun which was in a house that a "drug user was minding".

But he said he never accessed the Skorpion.

The court heard in the summer last year he was supplying cannabis and cocaine, in kilo amounts, to people in areas including North Wales.

Barry said he was convicted earlier this year of conspiracy to sell or transfer a prohibited weapon, a sub-machine gun, and had also been convicted of drug supply offences.

Barry, Witham, Sean Zeisz, 28, Ian Fitzgibbon, 28, and Joseph Peers, 29, deny the murder of Miss Dale, conspiracy to murder Mr Harrison and conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon, a Skorpion sub-machine gun, and ammunition.

Witham admits manslaughter.

Kallum Radford, 26, denies assisting an offender.

The trial will continue on Friday.