Five men are accused of murdering Knowsley Council worker shot dead aged 28 in her own home
James Witham, of Ashbury Road in Huyton, 28-year-old Sean Zeisz, of Longreach Road in Huyton, 26-year-old Niall Barry, of Moscow Drive in Tuebrook, 28-year-old Joseph Peers, of Woodlands Road in Roby, and 28-year-old Ian Fitzgibbon, of Heigham Gardens in St Helens, have pleaded not guilty to murdering the Knowsley Council worker, conspiracy to murder her boyfriend Lee Harrison and conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon, namely a Skorpion submachine gun, and ammunition with intent to endanger...
A flat above a row of shops on this street was previously described as a "centre of operations" for those accused of being involved in the supposed plot. Peers' phone then appeared to have been "switched off" for two hours between 9.09pm and 11.09pm. The defence silk added: "You could still use your phone to take photographs or listen to music or play games."Mr Wright continued: "Your phone is no longer transmitting a radio signal. That’s why you say the phone appears to have been switched off until 23.09, you can’t say for certain that it was."PC Sam Ward was called to give evidence to the jury.
Footage captured by PC Ward's body worn camera during the incident was also played to the court. Steven Swift, defending Radford, then cross-examined the officer. Prosecution junior Alex Langhorn then asked him in re-examination: "If you hadn’t been called to that address, would you have any reason to go there?"PC Ward said: "I don’t believe, personally, that I would have."
In one set of messages, her friend Sophie referred to Barry being "robbed by the Hillsides" years ago. She added: "But like obviously Lee is with the Hillsides, so like is Branch going to take them all on his own because Zest won’t back him." PC Farquhar replied "yes, he is considered to be a significant member of the Hillsiders organised crime group", and added: "He is referred to by himself and other members of the organised crime group as Dusty."
PC Farquhar replied that it "generally refers to 'Longview to Hillside''", a phrase he said he had heard "numerous times". The pendant was also engraved with a second message on the rear, which read: "Free all of me f****ing gang Longview is my block till the end of day." "He said something like 'here lad, do you know anyone, does anyone have a driveway or garage where we could park the car?'. He said someone was trying to smash the car up and it would only be for a week."
"Two scouse lads they was. There was another one in another car behind, but I don’t know what car it was. The driver was said to have had dark, "wavy" hair and was "fresh faced" and of "medium build", while he was wearing "trackies". Of the second man, Radford said: "I’m sure one of them begins with a Z. It might have been a nickname, something like that.Radford said it was a "name beginning with Z”, adding "It was Zest or something like that". When asked if he had seen the man before, he replied: "Never in my life.
Radford was then asked about a taxi journey booked from his then home on Redgate Drive in St Helens to Peers' mum's address on October 21. He told detectives: "No comment. He replied "no comment". He then refused to answer questions on whether Peers had been to his house that day and whether he had got into the taxi after arriving in the Hyundai.Radford responded: "No comment."
Radford said he could not leave the car at his address as he needed to get his bike out of the garden and would instead "ask his mate for him". After calling Ms Jevins, he reported: "She said yeah, yeah no problem."He’s passed me £100. He said ‘nice one for this lad, it will be gone in a week’."When the week was over I was ringing him. He didn’t come and get the car you see.Radford said Peers told him: "One of my mates has just been nicked over the Encros.
When asked to describe the other male, he reported that he had "dark hair" and "tall". Radford said he had then stayed "chilling with Abbie" afterwards and "had a quick joint" "before getting off", saying of Peers: "He said 'I’ll see you in a bit, I’ll be back in a week and I’ll come back and get it'.
"They’ve put that situation on me. I won’t give them the time of day again, I hate them, they’re horrible people. "We used to walk the dogs together. One of my friends went to Turkey, he was getting his teeth done or his hair done."I'd just go on the odd occasion to Thomas’ house. Thomas went to jail."She was a lovely lady. We’d be chilling, having a brew.
He stated that he was not aware that Peers had been arrested in relation to the Ashley Dale investigation. When asked if he knew "where Joey was in September", Radford said: "He said to me he was going up to Scotland to see someone, his uncle or someone." Mr Langhorn said it was after his third interview on September 15 that Witham made some comments to an officer as he was being led back to his cell. He was said to have complained that he was “being set up” and added that the car was “Davo’s”.
He "thereafter exercised his right to silence". When re-interviewed on February 13 this year, he gave a further prepared statement saying: "I previously confirmed I have nothing to do with this offence and vehemently deny any involvement - I wish to make it clear I’m disgusted by what happened." "When Witham left, Joe also left and said he was going home. As soon as Joe left, I called him to ask him to get us some cigarettes.
"I know Niall from living in the area. Once again, I vehemently deny any involvement in the offence." Police staff investigator Dave Rawsthorne, of the force's major crime unit, was then called to give evidence from the witness box this afternoon. He told the jury how, over the course of the investigation, he and his colleagues were tasked with visiting Harrison on several occasions.
This was the final time he spoke to her. He said that he had drank alcohol and "taken drugs including cocaine" over the course of the evening before taking a taxi back to Longview Heights. The witness added: "He handed us what we call a burner phone, a small black Nokia phone. It was last used in March 2022, and he had only started using it again that day.Mr Rawthorne visited Harrison for a third time on the evening of August 22, when he "again denied being the subject of any threat or dispute". He again refused to hand over his iPhone or take part in a video recorded interview with detectives.
When detectives then visited him in November, it was "discovered that he was in Dubai". An officer would visit him on January 31 following his return to the UK in order to inform him that Witham and Joseph Peers had been charged with murder. Mr Greaney asked: "Was he frothing at the mouth and talking very rapidly about the impact on himself?"Harrison reportedly denied having been threatened by Zeisz, and said that he and his former partner Olivia McDowell had been for drinks at their house two weeks before the shooting. He was described as "totally uncooperative" with the investigation into Ashley's death, since which time he has been "out of the UK in Dubai on a number of occasions".
Mr Greaney told the jury: "Thing is a common slang term for a firearm, a .38 is a calibre of ammunition, and it’s common for firearms to be referred to by the calibre of ammunition they take. A Skorp is a common name for a Skorpion submachine gun." He also described how Barry had been in possession of a "county lines graft phone" known as the "Kyle Line". The prosecutor added that between May and August 2022: "The Kyle Line was a graft line or county lines used to organise or facilitate supply of crack cocaine and heroin in North Wales, particularly in Rhyl."
Peers stated that he had watched the Anthony Joshua v Oleksandr Usyk boxing match that evening while "laying down on the rug in the living room with me dog". Mr Wright said: "At the time the home of Ashley Dale was entered by Mr Witham and she was shot, what were you doing?" Peers said he was on "friendly" terms with Ashley, and had spent time with her and Harrison at festivals "over the years". He also reported that he had offered a "friendly greeting" to Harrison at the funeral of Rikki Warnick, a mutual friend who died by suicide on July 21."I put a thumbs up. There was no tension, I carried on."
Mr Wright asked whether he was "aware there was any incident at Glastonbury". Peers replied: “No I was unaware, obviously I wasn’t in there." He reported that he had been about to leave for home on foot when Witham offered him a lift. They were then said to have left in a Hyundai i30N Performance, the car used in the shooting.
"I’ve made a cup of tea, I was speaking to my mum, I’ve come down and it was already on. I’ve watched it until about 10 past 12, the aftermath."
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