Two men have denied gunning down a 28-year-old woman in the back garden of her own home.
Joseph Peers, 28, and James Witham, 40, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ashley Dale. The Knowsley Council environmental health officer was found shot in the back yard of a property on Leinster Road, Old Swan, shortly after midnight on August 21, 2022.
They appeared via video link at Liverpool Crown Court today, June 30, where they also pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon and ammunition with an intention to endanger life.
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Peers, of Woodlands Road, Roby, and Witham, of Ashbury Road, Huyton, were charged with the murder of Miss Dale in January.
Detectives said a gunman burst through the front door of Ashley Dale's house and fired multiple shots "indiscriminately" in an attack targeted on her property – though it is not believed the 28-year-old was the intended victim.
Kallum Radford, 25, of no fixed abode, pleaded not guilty to assisting an offender by taking possession of the Hyundai car believed to have been used by Peers and another man, Sean Zeisz, during the murder.
Zeisz, 27, of Longreach Road in Huyton, and Niall Barry, 26, of Moscow Drive in Tuebrook, were charged in February. They were not asked to enter a plea.
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