A man accused of driving the gunman who killed Ashley Dale today claimed he "did not hear" him "confess" to shooting up her home.
Joseph Peers, 29, has denied any involvement in the shooting that killed 28-year-old Ashley, shortly after 12.30am on August 21 last year. However prosecutors believe he was present at the scene both at the time and just under an hour earlier, when the tyres of her car were slashed in what the prosecution argues was an attempt to lure out the occupants of the house.
James Witham, 41, has admitted kicking down the door of Ashley's home in Leinster Road, Old Swan, and spraying the inside of the property with bullets from a Skorpion sub-machine gun. Witham has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but will claim he did not see or hear Ashley and had instead being trying to "send a message" to her boyfriend, 25-year-old Lee Harrison, who was not home at the time.
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The prosecution case is that Witham and Peers had been "dispatched" to kill Harrison by Niall Barry, 26; Sean Zeisz; 28, and Ian Fitzgibbon, 28, who were allegedly directing the hit from a flat in Pilch Lane, Huyton. All five men deny Ashley's murder as well as conspiracy to murder Lee Harrison, and are standing trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
Today Paul Greaney, KC, prosecuting, said Zeisz and Barry will claim in their defence cases that Witham admitted his involvement in the shooting after returning to the flat, with Peers, at 1.25am.
Mr Greaney said: “Other defendants in the dock now, who were in the flat at the time, are going to suggest James Witham said once he returned that he had shot up Lee Harrison's house. Did you hear him say that?”
Peers responded: "To be honest I only learned about this in a defence statement probably a couple of days ago. I was unaware he had opened up or told anyone until I read it myself. I didn’t hear him say that.
"As you'll see from the cameras I left at 3.16am. Witham remains past 4am. If he’s opened up to someone, it was definitely within the time, I’ve definitely left before he’s actually done that. That’s the truth."
The jury has heard Peers and Witham spent time together after the shooting, including two nights in a hotel in St Helens and journeys to and from Scotland, before they were arrested on September 13. Peers also accepts helping Witham to move the Hyundai to the home of his friend, Kallum Radford, in St Helens.
Mr Greaney asked: “If you had heard him make that confession, it would mean all that time you spent with him between then and September 13 would have been time in the knowledge of what he’d done.”
Peers said: “There’s no way I would have checked into a hotel that next day, there’s no way I would have parked a legit car never involved in anything like this. Why on earth is he going to do something like this in his own car?”
Mr Greaney said: “Let’s assume you didn’t hear that confession that we understand will be described by others. Sean Zeisz is your friend. Barry not such a good friend but a friend nonetheless. In the aftermath of August 21, in all of those days before September 13, did Sean Zeisz or Niall Barry not say to you, ‘I know you weren't there but goodness, once you’ve gone Witham confessed that he had done that awful shooting’.
Peers said: “None of them said that personally to me face to face. I do recall Sean Zeisz making a call going on saying he needs to see me, he needs to tell me something. I never ended up seeing him that day. I never seen not one of these co defendants after this other than Witham.”
Mr Greaney asked: "Your position is that throughout the whole of this period you never knew James Witham had done the shooting. You hadn’t heard him confess and no one told you about this confession?"
Peers said: “That’s right yeah.”
Earlier Peers told the jury the group were "chilling" in the Pilch Lane flat throughout the evening of August 20, preparing to watch a world title boxing fight between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk. However, shortly after 10pm, he left intending to return to his parents' home in Woodlands Road, Roby, to watch the fight with his dad, at which point Witham offered to give him a lift.
Peers said he was "fuming" because instead of heading directly to Woodlands Road, Witham instead drove to the address of an associate, David McCaig, who was not at home. Peers said Witham then asked him to arrange for him to buy cannabis from a man called Barry Westall in Huyton House Road, before actually dropping him off at his parents'.
The gas engineer claims that he watched the fight at home, and was intending to stay in, but Witham knocked on shortly after 1am and asked him if he wanted to walk back to the flat in Pilch Lane. He said Witham never mentioned shooting up Ashley's home at any point.
Earlier, the jury was told a fight between Zeisz and Lee Harrison's friend, Jordan Thompson, at Glastonbury festival "reignited" an old feud between Barry and Harrison.
Peers said he had "never heard" of Thompson, nicknamed Dusty, and had no idea what a "Hillsider" was. The jury has heard evidence that the Hillsiders were an organised crime group based in the Hillside and Longview area of Huyton, and that Thompson and Harrison were affiliated with the gang.
Messages between Ashley and her friends, recovered from her phone after her death, described how Barry had been "on some pure rampage" after an old feud between him and Harrison had flared up following Glastonbury.
Barry is alleged to have threatened Harrison in the weeks before the shooting, and in messages to her friends recovered from her phone after her death, Ashley described her "terrible anxiety" that something "bad" was going to happen between the two men.
Witham, of Ashbury Road in Huyton, 28-year-old Zeisz, of Longreach Road in Huyton, 26-year-old Barry, of Moscow Drive in Tuebrook, 29-year-old Peers, of Woodlands Road in Roby, and 28-year-old 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 – 26-year-old Kallum Radford, of Trentham Road in Kirkby – denies assisting an offender. The trial, before Mr Justice Goose, continues.
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