The trial of five men accused of murdering Ashley Dale has entered its fourth week. One of the defendants has admitted to manslaughter, while another denies assisting an offender.
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, 29-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...
Mr Wright said: "I asked why you made the booking, you made the booking for that reason. This is a booking made in your name?"Peers said: "My credit card and me phone number." "It turned into me booking a hotel for him. I would have just stayed in my mum’s or stayed local by me if it wasn’t for Witham coming the next day with the car, I probably wouldn't have been in St Helens booking hotels or anything like that."
"When I’ve been to Scotland and come back down, I asked did she want to stay in a hotel. I thought I was going to be alone this time.Stanley Reiz KC, representing Barry, asked Peers about what was happening in the flat between 8.28pm and around 10.10pm on August 20, when he and Witham left in a grey Hyundai, later identified as the car that carried the shooter to the scene.
John Cooper KC, representing Ian Fitzgibbon, also asked Peers about the visit to Adisco Food and Wines. The jury had heard Fitzgibbon had also travelled to the shop, but remained in the car while Witham and Peers went inside. Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, then began to cross-examine him during the afternoon session. Of his and Witham's two-night stay at the Mercure Hotel in St Helens on the evenings of August 21 and 22, he asked: "On those two nights, in the immediate aftermath of the killing, you shared a room with Witham, did he just seem to be his normal self?"Mr Greaney continued: "Then you travelled to Scotland with him, before travelling back to St Helens and again staying in the same hotel.
Peers replied: "Alls I’ve thought was odd, he’s asking me to book hotels in my name. I was in a car crash on the 19th."Whatever has gone on in those two hours, I haven't been aware of that. He’s come to me the next morning with the first thing that I did have knowledge of, the car crash. Mr Greaney: "With all of this, making you go back after the shooting, making you book hotels, causing you to travel with him to Scotland, making arrangements for the vehicle. Do you think he was setting you up in some way?"
Peers: "When I come home after checking out of the hotel. My little sister told me, she said look at this. look at what’s gone on, in the ECHO." The prosecutor said: "He’s inviting Niall Barry to smash the windscreen of her car. Effectively, he’s encouraging Niall Barry in very strong terms to cause damage to Liv's car, it goes on and on like this for a number of pages.
Peers said: “I knew that a certain thing happened, but it wasn’t with Dusty. It was with someone else.” Peers replied: “That there is just him carrying away with his partner. She’s been cheating on him with a guy who’s supposedly hit him in Glastonbury.Mr Greaney moved on to the suicide of Rikki Warnick on July 21 last year, which Peers agreed had "hit him hard". The jury has head that Zeisz sent a a message to Barry on July 22 saying: "Dust been bullying Rik lad".
The two later took a taxi down to Valencia, before flying onwards to Portugal. They then returned to the UK in early August after the death of their friend Rikki Warnick. He said this journey had cost him and Zeisz 500 Euros. Mr Greaney also said Peers had had "substantial sums of cash" when checking into the Mercure Hotel in St Helens on two occasions and was in possession of £500 upon his arrest.
"I can get the details of the job and address where I done the job and pictures. I probably took selfies doing the job." "Ideal Install was the first company I had. I actually never got time to change Ideal Install into Brilliance, I never got round to changing it all back round." "I wasn’t in their presence, I was in the Co-op, on camera, on my own phone, speaking to someone who is nothing to do with any of this."
The KC continued: "When you left, James Witham spent some time with his son in Liverpool. He plainly had access to substantial sums of money, including making the biggest deposit of cash he’d ever made into his bank account - do you know how he had come into substantial sums of cash?" On August 29 and August 30, Peers used Witham's bank card on several occasions to withdraw a total of £650 from his account at a Post Office. Mr Greaney asked: "An account he had paid £1,000 in cash into.Peers said: "Definitely not, no. As far as I’m aware, nobody goes and kills someone for a thousand pounds and puts it into a bank account the next day, you’d have to be stupid.
The jury heard during that time the car, a Hyundai i30n Performance was recorded on CCTV in Glen Road, close to Ashley's home, at around 10.20pm, although it never actually entered Leinster Road at that time. Peers told the jury Witham was driving the car at that point and then dropped him off at home.
Mr Greaney stated that the lift home from Witham meant a "15 minute walk" had turned into a car journey of more than one hour. Peers replied: "I’m not lying about that."I should have been home, but I wasn’t. It’s still just baffling to me still, having to go over this." Mr Greaney continued: "Your job was to drive that car and otherwise support James Witham in that plot to attack Leinster Road and kill Lee Harrison, leaving behind no witnesses."
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. Mr Greaney put to him: "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?"Mr Wright called Peers' mum and dad, Lesley and Thomas McMahon to give evidence in support of their son's alibi. Mrs McMahon told the jury she recalled her son coming home shortly after 11pm, bringing her a cup of tea and returning downstairs to watch the fight.
Mr Wright asked what had happened to the recording of footage captured by CCTV cameras at their home. Mrs McMahon said: "When we moved, the box itself had been packed away. At one stage she appeared to become tearful and wiped her eyes with a tissue, before indicating she was ok to continue. Mr Greaney suggested she had told the jury a "pack of lies", and that Peers' alibi was a "bare faced lie".
Mr Justice Goose, who is presiding over the trial, said: “He understands that this is his opportunity to explain to the jury what his case would be and give evidence. It may be open to the jury to draw an adverse inference." Zeisz agreed that Witham was "loud" and "asked to leave" by Barry, adding: "In a nice way. Joe stood up and said he was going home.""You just got me round here to watch the boxing, sit down, chill out. He said he was going home to see his dad."
Mr Davies continued: "About 12 minutes later, we can see a call from Joe to you for about 19 seconds. Did you speak to him, what was said?"Mr Davies: "We then see another call, 1.18am, from you to him again, that’s nearly half an hour after that first call - 20 minutes, sorry. Why did you call him again?""It shouldn't have took him 20 minutes. It’s a five minute walk from his mum’s to there.Witham was present with Peers when he arrived back at Pilch Lane.
"He was saying 'Witham’s killed Ashley', screaming. He said 'I think he shot Ashley or killed Ashley', I didn’t know what he was on about."Then he showed me on his phone. My heart sunk." "Claudia, his sister, said Sophie O’Connor had called her and said Ashley had been shot and killed. Do you remember Mr Fitzgibbon saying that?"Mr Cooper continued: "When Mr Fitzgibbon said that to you, you did not reply. No criticism of you.
The defence silk asked: "Why were you holding Dusty responsible? You’re saying Rikki was being bullied by Dusty, what was it that you had been aware of?". Over the coming days, he messaged her saying: "You really picking that smackhead up from town? A f****** little tramp, picking him up from town.Zeisz said: “She’s driving round with Dusty.”
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