‘IT’S ALL KICKED OFF’
Ashley Dale’s ‘terrible anxiety’ before her murder revealed in chilling voice notes that helped nail killers
Hardened detectives were humbled by victim's voice notes
VOICE notes found on Ashley Dale's phone revealed her "terrible anxiety" and helped police incriminate the gang responsible for her death.
Masked gunman James Witham kicked down Ashley's front door and shot her last summer.
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Ashley, 28, was gunned down as she tried to flee the gunman through the kitchen of her home in Old Swan, Liverpool.
Witham then went upstairs and let off a burst of fire into a bedroom before leaving Ashley to die alone.
When police searched Ashley's home after her death they found her mobile phone, which contained voice notes and other messages.
The contents of her phone provided detectives with a narrative charting the course of a gangland fall out which led up to her own death.
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At one point Ashley states: “I have a bad, bad feeling about everything.”
DCI Cath Cummings told The Sun that the fact that Ashley "narrated" the background to her own murder was a "highly unusual feature of the case."
DCI Cummings said that some of the voice notes on the victim's phone were highly emotive, in light of her murder.
Ashley, an environmental health officer, became embroiled into the nightmare world of guns and gangs through her partner Lee Harrison.
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Harrison was friends with a group of drug dealers who appear to have been led by Niall 'Branch' Barry.
But when the Hillsiders OCG stole £40,0000 worth of cocaine from Barry, he fell out with Harrison, who was linked to the street gang.
The simmering dispute flared up when Sean Zeisz, an associate of Barry, was attacked by the Hillsiders at the Glastonbury music festival.
To add salt to the wound Zeisz's partner, who witnessed the attack, dumped him and went off to party with the Hillsiders gang.
Later a mutual friend of both sides in the dispute died when he was hit by a train in the Huyton area.
Ricky Warnick's tragic death appears to have inflamed the dispute with both sides blaming the other for his suicide.
Tensions between the Hillsiders and the Barry OGC reached a critical point between June and August 2022.
At one point during this period of time Ashley said: "Had terrible anxiety yesterday. Absolutely terrible anxiety."
The build up toward Ricky Warnick's funeral was a stressful time for Ashley, because she knew that Niall Barry ( Branch) would probably be there with his associates.
She said: "Been heavy beef with that Branch for years. Like if my fella see's him, it's going off like, it yeah its gonna be bad like. Where its like to the point where probably one of them gonna end up in a bad way."
Just weeks before her death, she told a pal: "I am looking over my shoulder all the time."
Paul Greaney KC told Liverpool Crown Court that Ashley's voice notes "from beyond the grave" provided a "coherent account" of the saga that led up to her death.
He said: "She predicted an awful outcome from that major beef. And Ashley was right that there would be an awful outcome, even if she did not identify that she would be the victim.
"Those words of hers you have heard, her voice from beyond the grave, speak about the truth of what caused her death.
"What she was speaking about, what she was troubled about, what she was fearful of, what she thought was going to have a bad outcome was not James Witham - it was a dispute involving Branch.
“The account Ashley gives is consistent and entirely coherent. Will they maintain Ashley was lying to her friends about where the threat was coming from, that it was coming from Niall Barry when it was coming from James Witham? If that suggestion is made you should reject it out of hand.
"You’ve heard Ashley’s own voice. You can make your own judgement about the anxiety and fear she expresses. Clearly she feared Niall Barry was going to cause serious harm to Lee Harrison. Why would she have lied? Any idea that she would is plainly nonsense.
"Ashley made clear the threat came from once place, Niall Barry and his organised crime group. How can she possibly have been mistaken about that?"
Ashley's mum and step-dad said they blamed Harrison for her death and were disgusted by his failure to cooperate with the police investigating their daughter's death.
Julie Dale, 46, also said that Harrison had not made any attempt to offer support to her family after Ashley's death.
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Ashley got her first job in retail aged 16 and initially planned to go into nursing before getting a job as an environmental health officer for Knowsley council. Prior to her death she had won a promotion.
James Witham, 41, Joseph Peers, 29, Niall Barry, 26, and Sean Zeisz, 28, were all found guilty of Ashley's murder today at Liverpool Crown Court.
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