Five men are accused of murdering Knowsley Council worker shot dead in her own home aged 28
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 Cooper: "The prosecution say that you knowingly involved yourself with a hit on Lee Harrison, with a common purpose that any other person in the way should be killed. Were you involved in the organisation of a hit on Lee Harrison, with also an understanding that anyone that was there at the time would be killed?""Lee’s always been my friend. I’d never see no harm come to Lee.
Mr Cooper then turned to events at Glastonbury 2022, when Barry - known as "Branch" - is alleged to have brandished a knife to Fitzgibbon and threatened to stab Harrison. He denied having done so during his evidence last week. Fitzgibbon: "Basically, he was just drunk and off his head, but yeah. Everyone who's there had been drinking, taking drugs."
He responded: "I said to him I’d seen Branch last night, he’s pulled a blade out and said he’s gonna stab you up. I said stay with me, be careful."He seemed a bit put out with what I’d said to him. He weren't too fazed, he just said I’m not gonna do nothing.Mr Cooper said that contact between Ashley's and Fitzgibbon's phones then continued into the evening and during the course of Sunday.
"Just as long as I know he was alright, I felt sound. I’m just always checking on him to make sure he’s alright." "I didn’t think they’d knock on my door. If they did, it’s because I’d been around James Witham the day before."Fitzgibbon said: "It looked bad for me. I’m worried about getting called a grass or something happening to my little sisters or me mum, I’d never put their lives in danger by telling the police about that argument."Fitzgibbon: "I was always going to Dubai anyway. My sister's birthday was on the 27th.
"You’d have to communicate that to people you wanted to speak to. Tell us what your handle was please."Mr Greaney: "This drug dealing which made you successful, was it that which enabled you to fund your travel to Dubai and stay there? Moving back and forwards to Spain for nearly 12 months?""In Spain, I carried on selling cannabis. That’s how I survived in Spain."Fitzgibbon: "I stayed with friends and family.
Fitzgibbon denied having done so. Ms Appleton followed up by asking: "Were you also doing that at Glastonbury?"Ms Appleton referred to another message sent by Ashley, describing how Fitzgibbon had "offered Lee a blade" at Glastonbury when warning him about Barry's threat. She asked if Fitzgibbon was in possession of a knife at the festival, which he admitted he was."I got slashed in the face by a group of lads stopping my sister from .
"You’d been there with Zest. On August 6, Ashley reported what she had been told by Dusty himself about this." "Lee’s rang me and said 'I'm coming home, I'm never coming up here again'. I was just like, it’s f****** heavy. "He came back to Rikki's mum's and said Dusty jumped off a bike with something and said 'tell Zest that’s for him'. There wasn't a discharge of a firearm.”
Fitzgibbon: "No, he would never go over to Rikki’s and do something like that. He’s a lovely lad and he was friends with Rikki and all of us." Fitzgibbon said: “He wanted to meet me in Dubai." Mr Greaney pointed out Fitzgibbon had "never mentioned" speaking to Harrison after the shooting, either in his defence statement served ahead of the trial or in evidence to the jury.
Witham, a self-confessed class A drug dealer who sold heroin and crack cocaine in North Wales, Blackpool and Scotland, then began giving evidence and told the jury he had fallen out with Harrison because he "had been robbing me for years". Under questioning from his barrister Richard Pratt KC, Witham told the jury: "He owed me money once.
He said they visited a Thai massage parlour next to the pub, before getting a taxi to Pilch Lane where he joined Barry, Peers, Fitzgibbon and later Zeisz. However Barry said he was humiliated when Barry "made of show of me" by telling him not to order cocaine to the flat. Mr Pratt said: "Then you saw Lee Harrison on a Snapchat story. What did you decide you wanted to do?”
Witham told the jury he decided to shoot up the inside of Harrison's home, specifically a spare room "where I know he keeps all his clothes". He described stabbing the tyres of Ashley's white Volkswagen T-Roc car and setting off its alarm to check if anyone was in the house. "I don't know what was going through my head. It was the worst mistake I've ever made in my life and I’m so sorry for it."Witham said: "When I was on the phone to my mate, he told me where it was. Just explained where it was.
Witham said: “No, she was a lovely girl and I'm so sorry for doing it. I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.” Witham said Peers agreed to store the car at the home of his friend, Radford, in St Helens, and told Witham to drive it there later that day. He said: "My head was done."I couldn't tell him nothing. I felt so ashamed of doing it."
Witham said he and Peers left Redgate Drive in a taxi but then decided to go for a "swim, sauna and steam" at the Mercure Hotel in St Helens. He said the facilities were not working, but the pair decided to book a night's stay.Witham replied: “My head was battered. I was suicidal."I bottled it all in. I’m a private person, I don’t tell no-one nothing, that’s what I do."
Mr Greaney later cross-examined Witham on the CCTV of him and Peers inside the Mercure Hotel. He said: "We’re going to see you laughing and joking and looking up and down every woman that was there."Mr Greaney said: “We see you laughing and joking." Mr Greaney: "You aren’t prepared to tell lies about the circumstances in which Ashley was killed? You said to the police when they asked you what had happened to Ashley that you had nothing to do with it."Mr Greaney: "You knew you had killed Ashley and were telling the police it was nothing to do with you."Mr Greaney: "The next day you said you had been set up."Witham: "No, I wasn't lying. I was lying there, it was me that done it.
Mr Greaney said: "What you explained was that Little Dave’s brother, Big Dave, was in Spain deriving from evidence in connection with an EncroChat device, you were at the Everton game and you spoke to big Dave. You didn’t speak to him on your phone, as there would be evidence either way wouldn’t there."Witham: "I used to work with him in Blackpool. I was on the phone for about 15, 20 minutes."Witham: "It was when we were in the match, before it kicked off.
"The answer calls for a dispassionate assessment of the evidence - please place your emotions to one side and apply logic. When you do that, we predict that you will be sure that each man in that dock is guilty of the offences - or in the case of Kallum Radford, the offence - with which he is charged."
“Why had 40 Leinster Road been attacked and why had Ashley been shot and killed? The reasons will be obvious. "The death of Rikki Warnick and events related to that, including Dusty’s discharge of a firearm near to the home of Rikki's mother, increased the temperature further, leading to the attack. There was a deep dispute between those two men going back many years."From that point on, Rikki Warnick died, adding fuel to this fire and there was an explosion on the night of the 20th and 21st. That is what we suggest is behind the killing.
Mr Greaney added that Witham's version of events was "nonsense of the highest order", referring to a picture showing him "grinning" in the company of Ms Dale and Harrison at Glastonbury 2019, while apparently in the midst of their feud. He also highlighted the messages and voice notes found on Ashley's phone, which spoke of issues between her partner and Barry - also known as "Branch" - rather than the gunman.
"It is dependant on the truthfulness of what they say. James Witham is demonstrated to be a liar on a staggering scale. Mr Greaney suggested to the jury that the evidence pointed to Barry "being Witham's boss" and Witham having "taken the fall for Niall Barry". He added: "What you saw was James Witham just agreeing over and over again with things that he knew Niall Barry wanted him to agree with.
"They revealed a man prepared to say anything, no matter how ridiculous, to escape the consequences of what he had done. What he had done was murder Ashley." "We know Niall Barry had access to weapons including a Skorpion submachine gun. Niall Barry will say this was me just pretending to be tough, and by last year you can be assured I no longer had access to firearms."
He said: "The day after Rikki’s death. Sean Zeisz reported ‘Ian has just booted the door off’. Wanting Niall Barry to go and rip all of Liv’s possessions out of the flat, he said ‘Ian has booted the door off’. He highlighted to the jury that after Witham and Peers left the flat at 10.10pm on August 20, Fitzgibbon had made phone contact with Witham and Peers, which he told the jury was about the boxing that night and about cannabis. Mr Greaney said: "Once you conclude that those two men, Joseph Peers and James Witham, had left that flat to carry out the killing, what were those communications about?
"What was it that confirms their central thesis that he was an active and central participant in it? What is the beef?“On behalf of Joseph Peers, we’re still waiting to find out. We do not invite preference of one suggested motive over another. "We say the evidence is clear. Joseph Peers is not the man the prosecution would invite you to conclude he is.
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