Footage has emerged of Ashley Dale attending the wake of a friend who took his own life just days before she was killed in her home.
The 28-year-old was shot dead in Old Swan, Liverpool, in August last year, after a dispute between rival factions was sparked by violence at the music festival shortly before.
The clip shows Ashley chatting with friends as she entered Ten Streets Social following the funeral of Rikki Warnick.
Jurors were earlier shown bodycam footage of police arresting Ashley Dale’s suspected killers at Glastonbury and finding a flick knife, after the gangsters allegedly threatened to stab her boyfriend in a feud.
James Witham, 41, accepts opening fire with a Skorpion sub-machine gun and shooting the bullet that killed Ashley, but will claim he did not see or hear victim and was trying to ‘send a message’ to her partner Lee Harrison, who was not at home.
He has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denies murder.
Witham and a second man, Joseph Peers, were ‘dispatched’ to kill Harrison, 25, by three men – Niall Barry, Sean Zeisz and Ian Fitzgibbon – who were directing the hit from a flat in Huyton, the prosecution says.
Body-warn camera footage showing the arrest of Witham on June 25 in Pilton, near the site of Glastonbury, was played to the jury at Liverpool Crown Court.
Ashley Dale, 28, (pictured) was hit in the abdomen by a bullet when gunman James Witham, 41, invaded her home on August 21 last year
Niall Barry, who denies organising the murder of Ashley Dale, being detained by police in Somerset on his way to Glastonbury festival on June 25, 2022
The jury was also shown footage of Ashley, and some of the defendants, in attendance at the wake for Rikki Warnick, who had died earlier that year
Earlier Paul Greaney, KC, prosecuting, described how Witham and Barry had been travelling to the festival site in a taxi when they were pulled over by Avon and Somerset Police.
Mr Greaney said: ‘It seems that whilst attending Glastonbury, Niall Barry stayed at a pub with rooms not far from where the festival was taking place.
‘The pub was called the Pig and Wheel and he stayed there with five others, including James Witham, the man who shot and killed Ashley.
‘On the morning of Saturday 25th June, Niall Barry and James Witham were in a taxi, travelling from the Pig and Wheel towards the festival.
‘Uniformed officers stopped the vehicle they were in. In the rear of the taxi, along with Niall Barry and James Witham, was a holdall.
‘Officers searched the holdall and, within it, they found a passport in the name of Niall Warner. Warner is the surname of Niall Barry’s father.
‘So, in other words, the officers had found Branch’s passport in the holdall. In the bag, they also found a knife.’
The prosecution began introducing evidence to the jury, including the clip of the arrest from a PC James Whatley.
The footage shows Witham, who is wearing a blue two tone jacket, a blue cap, and carrying a man bag, being searched by officers.
PC Whatley then begins searching a blue holdall found in the back of the taxi. Wearing blue disposable latex gloves, he is seen flicking through a passport in the name of Niall Warner. The jury has heard Warner is the surname of Barry’s dad.
PC Whatley then picks up a black handled flick knife, pressing a button on the side to release the three inch blade. He says: ‘Oh hello, Mr Niall’. A colleague adds: ‘That’ll do, that’ll come in.’
Paul Greaney KC said: ‘When Ashley Dale saw James Witham, she screamed, she shouted ‘get the f*** out’ and she attempted to run for her life’
Ms Dale’s sister (left), her mother Julie Dale (centre) and stepfather Rob Jones (right) arriving at Liverpool Crown Court for the trial of Ian Fitzgibbon, Niall Barry, Sean Zeisz, Joseph Peers and James Witham on October 2
PC Whatley then approaches Barry, who is sat in handcuffs on the back seat of a police car, and tells him ‘you will be arrested on suspicion of possession of that’, before waving the knife in front of him.
Barry responds: ‘That’s not my bag, that’s what I was saying to him before my passport is in his [Witham’s] bag.’
Witham, who is standing near the front of the car in handcuffs speaking to another officer, shouts over that the bag is indeed his. He also tells the officer there is ketamine in the bag.
PC Whatley tells Witham: ‘I am going to arrest you then on possession of this [the knife]’. He reads Witham his rights, who said: ‘Ah I didn’t know it was even in there.’
The jury was also shown footage of Ashley, and some of the defendants, in attendance at the wake for Rikki Warnick, who had died earlier that year.
In the clip, the victim is holding two bottles of drink and eating a sandwich, while Peers, Fitzgibbon and Barry are also seen walking through the venue.
So far, the jury has heard messages and voice notes sent by Ashley to her friends in which she describes Barry producing a knife at the Glastonbury festival and threatening to stab her boyfriend Harrison, known by his nickname ‘Saz’.
During his opening, Mr Greaney told the jury: ‘The prosecution suggest that what this finding by the local police demonstrates is that whilst at the Glastonbury Festival, Niall Barry had access to a knife.
‘In turn, that provides support for the report, made by Ashley in her message to Sophie on 3rd July, that whilst at Glastonbury, Niall Barry had produced a big knife to Ian Fitzgibbon and said, ‘where’s Saz, he’s getting stabbed up’.
According to messages between Ashley and her friends, Barry and Harrison had ‘heavy beef’ going back around three years when Barry was robbed by a group known as the Hillsiders.
Harrison was friends with members of the group, including a Jordan Thompson, aka Dusty, who allegedly attacked Barry’s friend Zeisz, also during Glastonbury festival.
Niall Barry, 26, (pictured) was arrested at a hotel in Formby with a bag of cash and his passport, intending to flee the country, Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, said
Sean Zeisz, 28, (pictured) is one of the five defendants involved in the murder trial
The prosecution has claimed the attack at Glastonbury festival ‘reignited’ the feud between Barry and Harrison.
Barry is alleged to have threatened Harrison in the weeks before the shooting, and Ashley described her ‘terrible anxiety’ that something ‘bad’ was going to happen between the two men.
Witham, of Ashbury Road in Huyton; Zeisz, of Longreach Road in Huyton; Barry, of Moscow Drive in Tuebrook; Peers, of Woodlands Road in Roby; and Fitzgibbon, of Heigham Gardens in St Helens, have pleaded not guilty to murdering Ashley Dale, conspiracy to murder Harrison and conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon, namely a Skorpion submachine gun, and ammunition with intent to endanger life. Witham has admitted the lesser charge of manslaughter.
A sixth man – 25-year-old Kallum Radford, of Trentham Road in Kirkby – denies assisting an offender. The trial, before Mr Justice Goose, continues and is scheduled to last for six to eight weeks.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
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