FINAL WORDS
Ashley Dale’s chilling last message revealed moments before she was shot dead in ‘revenge attack’ as family sob in court
A TRAGIC council worker joked "I'm dead" to her boyfriend moments before she was gunned down and killed in a revenge attack, a court heard.
Ashley Dale, 28, sent the message to Lee Harrison after her tyres were slashed in a bid to allegedly lure her outside.
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Liverpool Crown Court heard Harrison messaged her saying: "Hahahaha you think you’re in a horror movie”.
When she failed to respond, he asked "are you ok?" followed by: "Alive?"
Ashley replied: "No, I’m dead”.
Her family wept today as Ashley's last text to her mum Julie Dale was also revealed after she told how her car alarm had just gone off.
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Her mum responded by telling her daughter she should "see the leaves round here".
Ashley's final text to Julie read: "Saw that on the news today. Because of the heatwave. World’s ending.”
Just moments later, James Witham used a Skorpion sub-machine gun to blast screaming Ashley in the stomach as she "ran for her life", it is said.
Just hours before he booted her front door in to carry out the cold-blooded killing, jurors heard the 41-year-old went to watch Everton vs Nottingham Forest.
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He was later seen on CCTV with co-accused Joseph Peers, 28, entering Adisco Food and Wine where they bought boxes of Peroni.
The court heard Witham was wearing £155 Cloudflyer trainers he purchased that day that matched a footprint left on Ashley's door.
He has admitted kicking the door in and shooting Ashley dead but he denies murdering her, claiming the killing was an "accident".
Liverpool Crown Court was told after the match at Goodison Park, Witham and associate Michael Kershaw got a taxi to a flat in Huyton described as the "centre of operations" for the plot.
Peers, Ian Fitzgibbon, 28, Niall Barry, 26 and Sean Zeisz, 28, who are also accused of Ashley's murder were in the home at the time.
Later on the evening of August 21, Barry, Zeisz and Fitzgibbon dispatched Peers and Witham to her home, it is said.
The gang allegedly wanted to kill Ashley's boyfriend Lee Harrison after Zeisz was attacked at Glastonbury that summer.
Footage showed to jurors earlier showed Witham and Barry being arrested at the festival after a three inch knife was found.
The "deeply humiliating" attack on Zeisz had "reignited" a feud between his gang and Harrison that left Ashley fearing the worst.
Just weeks before her death, she told a pal: "I am looking over my shoulder all the time.”
Witham and Peers showed up at Ashley's home where she was alone armed with the powerful gun to "kill [Harrison] and deal with anyone that got in their way", jurors were told.
Her alleged killers made an attempt to lure her outside by slashing the tyres of her Volkswagen T-ROC to trigger an alarm, it was said.
But Ashley sent a text at this time saying she believed the rain had set it off so she stayed inside where she was safe, or "so she no doubt thought".
Around 50 minutes later, Witham kicked the front door in causing Ashley to flee towards the back door of the house, jurors heard.
She screamed "get the f**k out" at the gunman as she attempted to "run for her life" before he opened fire.
A bullet then passed through her abdomen causing "catastrophic" damage.
Witham fired five bullets into the wall in Ashley's bedroom, which was a "firm message" to her boyfriend Lee Harrison, jurors heard.
Tragically, the court heard Ashley was found lying on the ground in her back garden "groaning in pain".
When police arrived, her alleged killers had fled and stricken Ashley could not be saved.
All five defendants deny murdering Ashley and also deny conspiracy to murder Lee Harrison and conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon, a Skorpion sub-machine gun, and ammunition.
A sixth defendant, Kallum Radford, 25, of no fixed address, denies assisting an offender.
The trial continues.
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