A man accused of helping to plot the shooting that killed Ashley Dale told a jury he was "friends with everyone" including both her boyfriend and the man who shot her.
Ian Fitzgibbon, 28, told a jury he was close friends with Ashley's boyfriend Lee Harrison, who was the alleged target of the attempted hit. Fitzgibbon, however, spent the hours before she was killed "getting stoned" in a flat in Pilch Lane, Huyton, with men including Niall Barry, who he claimed had threatened to "stab up" Harrison a few weeks earlier, and James Witham, who carried out the shooting.
Barry, aka 'Branch', is accused of arranging an attempt to kill Harrison, aka 'Saz', due to an old feud relating to the theft of drugs. Witham, 41, has admitted breaking 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 is expected to claim he did not see or hear Ashley when he opened fire at around 12.30am on August 21 last year, and had instead been attempting to "send a message" to Harrison, who was out in the city centre at the time.
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READ MORE: Ashley Dale murder suspect denies threat to 'stab up' her boyfriend at Glastonbury
The prosecution case is that Witham and Joseph Peers, 29, were "dispatched" to kill Harrison by Barry, 26; his friend Sean Zeisz, 28, and Fitzgibbon, who were allegedly directing the hit from the flat. All five men deny murdering Ashley and conspiracy to murder Harrison and are standing trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
Fitzgibbon, who began giving evidence this morning, told the jury he had no involvement in any shooting plot and "would never see me two friends hurt". He described how on June 25, 2022, he saw Barry at Glastonbury Festival, who told him "Tell Lee when you see him I'm going to stab him up".
Fitzgibbon said he was "shocked" and warned Harrison about the threat. However he accepted he spent the evening of August 20 into August 21 in the Pilch Lane flat with a group including Barry, Witham, Peers and Zeisz, smoking cannabis and waiting to watch Anthony Joshua's world title fight against Oleksandr Usyk.
His barrister, John Cooper, KC, asked if he had "changed allegiances" during that night. He said: "The prosecution say at this stage you appear to have associated yourself with a dispute involving Lee Harrison."
Fitzgibbon replied: "I understand but that’s untrue Sir". Mr Cooper said: “Did you suddenly change your allegiances on this particular night?”
Fitzgibbon said he did not, and Mr Cooper asked: "Did you have any particular allegiances?"
He replied: “No, I'm friends with everyone. It still baffles me now. It don’t even make sense in what they’re saying. It’s untrue."
Fitzgibbon was also asked about a car journey earlier that day when he drove Witham to Taskers sports shop in Aintree, where the older man bought a pair of On Cloudflyer trainers, later worn during the shooting.
He told the jury he had agreed to go with Witham to buy some cannabis resin in the Walton area, before Witham asked for a favour. Mr Cooper asked how he ended up driving to Taskers.
Fitzgibbon said: "I didn’t know that’s where I was going when I picked him up. He said do I mind taking him to Taskers. He wanted to get a new pair of trainees. He was going to match with his son and Michael Kershaw….
" waited outside and had a smoke, he bought the trainers and come back to the car. He was excited, he was looking forward to going the match. That’s what I took from him in that moment in time.”
Mr Cooper asked: "Did you think there was anything untoward or suspicious about his behaviour?” Fitzgibbon said: "No."
The prosecution case is that the old dispute between Barry and Harrison flared up during the summer of last year due to a series of incidents, including an alleged assault on Zeisz, by Harrison's friend Jordan Thompson, at Glastonbury festival. Zeisz has also admitted blaming Thompson for bullying a mutual friend, Rikki Warnick, who killed himself on July 21.
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 – 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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