Ashley Dale: Gunman who shot woman describes year of 'torture'

The trial has heard Ashley Dale was not the intended target of the shooting

A man who admits shooting a 28-year-old woman in her home with a machine gun told a court the last year has been "torture" for him.

Ashley Dale was shot in Liverpool after an alleged feud between five men accused of her murder and a plot to kill her partner Lee Harrison.

Gunman James Witham, 41, admits manslaughter but denies murder.

He told the trial at Liverpool Crown Court: "I haven't slept for a year. I have nightmares every time."

Mr Witham testified as Miss Dale's mother Julie Dale, step-father Rob Jones and other relatives watched from the public gallery.

Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, said: "You had about a year to think about these events."

Mr Witham replied: "I've had a year of torture. What I've done to that poor girl."

Mr Greaney asked: "It's been torture for you? It's been a nightmare for you?"

Mr Witham said: "It's been a nightmare for me and obviously her family as well. I'm so sorry."

Mr Greaney suggested Mr Witham had "lied and lied and lied" in a defence statement submitted in August, when he denied the shooting.

Mr Witham said: "Yeah, basically because I didn't know what to do and now I've owned up to it."

Ms Dale was found fatally injured in the back garden of her home on Leinster Road

The defendant, whose DNA was found on a bullet casing from a Skorpion machine pistol in the home in Leinster Road, Old Swan told the court no one else was involved in the shooting, on 21 August 2022.

He added: "It's all down to me."

Mr Greaney said: "You're the fall guy for the others, aren't you?"

Mr Witham said: "No, that's not true. They couldn't do that. No one could do that."

He denied working for co-defendant Niall Barry, who the court has been told had access to firearms.

Mr Witham said he fired shots in the house of environmental health worker Miss Dale as a "warning" to her partner Mr Harrison, who he claimed had robbed him.

He said he did not realise he had shot Miss Dale until the next morning, when his father woke him and told him she was dead.

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"I just went and got a cold shower and just sat on the floor for about 40 minutes in the shower," he said.

He added: "My head was still battered."

Mr Witham said he went to see co-defendant Joseph Peers and asked if he had somewhere to store a Hyundai car, which he used in the shooting, but did not tell him what he had done.

He and Mr Peers spent two nights in a St Helens hotel, the court was told.

Mr Witham said the pair originally planned to go to the hotel for a "swim, steam and sauna" but facilities were not open and they ended up staying over.

He told the jury he wanted to try and "relax", adding: "My brain was doing overtime. I wanted a sauna and steam - it just relaxes you."

Mr Witham, Mr Barry, 26, Mr Peers, 29, Sean Zeisz, 28, and Ian Fitzgibbon, 28, deny the murder of Miss Dale, conspiracy to murder Mr Harrison and conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon - a Skorpion sub-machine gun - and ammunition.

Kallum Radford, 26, denies assisting an offender.

The trial continues.

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