Ashley Dale’s killers slashed her tyres to try and lure her out of her home after her boyfriend humiliated a rival gangster at Glastonbury – then shot her dead with a sub-machine gun, a court heard today.

The council worker, 28, was killed after being hit in the abdomen by a bullet fired from a Cold War weapon at the property in Old Swan, Liverpool, in the early hours of August 21 last year.

The trial of five men accused of her murder opened this morning, with Liverpool Crown Court told how she was ‘deliberately’ targeted to ‘send a message’ to her boyfriend, following a clash at the music festival earlier that summer.

Paul Greaney KC said: ‘There can, suggests the prosecution, be no doubt that Ashley’s death was murder. She was shot deliberately and, indeed, mercilessly by a man who entered her home intending to kill.’

The jury heard that, at around 11.40pm on August 20, two men approached Miss Dale’s white Volkswagen T-Roc car – which was parked outside the house – and slashed its tyres, causing the alarm to sound, in an effort to ‘lure’ the occupants out.

Ashley Dale (pictured) was gunned down in the back garden of her home in Liverpool last August

Pictured: The home of Ashley Dale, where the 28-year-old council worker was shot dead, last August

Ashley Dale’s killers slashed the tyres of her car (pictured) to try and lure her out of her home before she was shot dead last August

The slashed tyres could be seen from an aerial shot taken as police investigated the scene last year

Court sketch of defendant Ian Fitzgibbon, one of five men on trial accused of murdering 28-year-old Ashley Dale

But it is thought that she believed the alarm had been set off by heavy rain and did not leave her house.

Fifty minutes later, the men returned, with one kicking in the front door of the property before opening fire on Miss Dale, the court heard.

The trial was told how Miss Dale had attended Glastonbury festival in June that year with her boyfriend Lee Harrison.

Four of the men accused of her murder – Sean Zeisz, 28, Niall Barry, 26, Ian Fitzgibbon, 28 and James Witham, 41 – were also there. 

The jury heard Zeisz was assaulted at the festival and his attackers included a man called Jordan Thompson.

Mr Greaney said: ‘Whilst at the festival, Sean Zeisz was assaulted and his attackers included Jordan Thompson.

‘This attack appears to have occurred because Sean Zeisz was, as it was later expressed, arguing with everyone for Niall Barry – who was known as Branch.

‘To compound the loss of face for Sean Zeisz, in the aftermath of the assault his girlfriend – a woman called Olivia, known as Liv, McDowell – stayed with the group of which Jordan Thompson, Lee Harrison and Ashley Dale were part.

‘It is clear that Sean Zeisz felt deeply humiliated from what had happened at Glastonbury.’

The court heard that in the following weeks, Barry sided with Zeisz as he already had a ‘longstanding antagonism’ towards Mr Harrison, who Mr Greaney said appeared to be involved in a ‘world of criminality’.

Mr Greaney said: ‘Niall Barry used these new events at Glastonbury to reignite that old feud.’

He said that on August 20, Fitzgibbon, Zeisz and Barry dispatched ‘foot soldiers’ Witham and the fifth defendant – Joseph Peers, 29 – armed with a Skorpion sub-machine gun to kill Mr Harrison at his home and ‘to deal with anyone that got in their way, leaving behind no witnesses’.

The council worker, 28, was ‘deliberately’ targeted with a Cold War submachine, a court heard today

Ashley Dale’s sister, mother and stepfather arrive at Liverpool Crown Court earlier this week

Ashley Dale was shot dead at her home (pictured) in Old Swan, Liverpool, in August last year

Miss Dale, whose family members wiped away tears at times during the opening, was at the couple’s home on Leinster Road with her dog on the night of the attack, while Mr Harrison was out.

The jury was told Witham admitted the manslaughter of Miss Dale, but said he shot her by accident in the early hours of August 21 having gone to ‘send a message’ to Mr Harrison following a dispute about drug dealing in North Wales.

Mr Greaney said: ‘It was James Witham who forced the front door to Leinster Road, James Witham who entered the house and James Witham who proceeded to open fire on Ashley, shooting and killing her.

‘James Witham then walked upstairs and into a bedroom, where he fired five bullets into the wall. He did that, the prosecution suggests, to send a firm message to Lee Harrison. 

‘That message was that he, Lee Harrison, had been the principal target of this attack and he too should be dead, along with Ashley.’

He added: ‘The position of the prosecution is that James Witham knows that he cannot escape the evidence that places him at the scene and which proves that he was the assassin, and that what he is doing in this trial is trying to get away with what he did as cheaply as he thinks possible – by admitting the least he calculates he can get away with.

‘James Witham is, the prosecution suggests, guilty not of the manslaughter of Ashley, but of her murder and of the other offences with which he is charged. 

‘He, we suggest, is a murderer and so are the others charged on count one of the indictment.’

Mr Greaney earlier told jurors that Witham and ‘driver’ Peers, were ‘dispatched’ to assassinate Harrison and ‘leave no witnesses’. 

They had allegedly received their orders from Barry, Zeisz and Fitzgibbon – who were said to have been ‘directing operations’ from a flat on Pilch Lane in Huyton.

Ashley Dale (pictured) was shot dead with a Skorpion sub-machine gun, a court heard

Police at the scene where Ashley Dale was shot dead in August last year

The jury heard that, at around 11.40pm on August 20 2022, two men approached Ashley’s white Volkswagen T-Roc car – which was parked outside the house – and slashed its tyres, causing the alarm to sound, in an effort to ‘lure’ the occupants out. 

But it is thought that she believed the alarm had been set off by heavy rain and did not leave her house.

Mr Greaney said: ‘The men who had damaged the car were not deterred. Fifty minutes later, at about 12.30am, they returned.

‘This time, they were not to be diverted from their intention to kill. One of the men approached the front door of 40 Leinster Road and he kicked it in.

‘Ashley plainly became aware of what was happening. She screamed and fled towards the back door of the house, but the man entered the house and he pursued her.

‘He was armed with a machine gun and opened fire. Ashley was struck by a bullet – it passed through her abdomen, causing catastrophic damage.’

The court heard Peers allegedly drove the gunman to the address in a Hyundai.

Voice recordings which the prosecution said were sent by Miss Dale to friends in the weeks leading up to her death were played to the court, including one in which she said she had ‘terrible anxiety’.

In one message to a friend, Miss Dale said that while at Glastonbury, Barry had produced a ‘big knife’ to Fitzgibbon and, referring to Mr Harrison by his nickname, said: ‘Where’s Saz, he’s getting stabbed up.’

She told friends Barry had fallen out with Mr Harrison a few years ago and was now ‘on some pure rampage’.

Witham, of Huyton; Fitzgibbon, of St Helens; Zeisz of Huyton; Barry of Tuebrook; and Peers of Roby – all Merseyside – deny Miss Dale’s murder.

All five 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, before Mr Justice Goose, continues and is scheduled to last for six to eight weeks.