Shooting victim's boyfriend admits drug conspiracy

Ashley Dale was killed at her home amid a gangland feud

The boyfriend of a woman who was killed in a shooting on Merseyside has admitted conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Ashley Dale, 28, was killed when a gunman forced his way into her home in Old Swan, Liverpool, in August 2022 following a feud between her attackers and her boyfriend Lee Harrison.

Harrison admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine as well as possessing cocaine with intent to supply when he appeared at Liverpool Crown Court.

Judge Brian Cummings adjourned the case ahead of sentencing on 21 February.

Harrison was arrested after a car was stopped by officers on the Jennifer Avenue in the city on 25 November.

The court heard the 27-year-old and his co-accused Terence Rice, 36, were accused of conspiring with each other and "other persons unknown" to supply Class A drugs between 1 October and 26 November 26.

A trial last year heard Harrison, of Liverpool Road, Huyton, had been "totally uncooperative" with police following his partner's murder.

Ashley Dale was not the intended target of the shooting, a trial heard

Ms Dale, an environmental health worker for Knowsley Council, was shot by gunman James Witham, 42, who opened fire with a Skorpion submachine gun in her home.

He fired 10 bullets in her dining room, one hitting Ms Dale in the abdomen as she stood by the back door, and five bullets into the wall of an upstairs bedroom.

Witham and his co-defendants Joseph Peers, 29, Niall Barry, 26, and Sean Zeisz, 28, were later convicted of her murder.

The trial heard Harrison had been the intended target of the shooting due to a feud with Barry, which had reignited at Glastonbury festival in June 2022.

Harrison's co-accused Rice, of Bearwood Road, Kirkby, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin and will also sentenced on the same date.