This is the moment Ashley Dale’s alleged killers drive around Liverpool’s streets in a Hyundai on the night she was shot dead. CCTV footage shown to jurors at Liverpool Crown Court shows the grey i30 travelling towards Ms Dale’s home on two occasions. The car turns into the council worker’s road at 12.30am on August 21, 2021, and left two minutes 36 seconds later. It comes after neighbours of the shooting victim told the court this morning how they heard what they believed was a ‘drill’ or ‘fireworks’ – at the time she was shot in her home by a hitman.They then heard a woman’s voice shouting ‘get the f*** out’ – and the sound of a car being driven away at speed.Four people who were living on the same street as the 28-year-old, killed just after midnight, gave evidence anonymously.
Neighbours thought they heard a ‘drill’ or ‘fireworks’ when Ashley Dale, 28, (pictured) was blasted in her home in Liverpool by a hitman, a court has heard CCTV footage was shown to jurors of Ashley Dale’s alleged killers driving around the streets in a Hyundai on the night she was shot deadGunman James Whitham, 41, is accused of kicking down the door of Ms Dale’s terraced home, chasing her through her terraced house in Old Swan, Liverpool, and opening fire on her with a Cold War-era Skorpion sub machine gun.
The first neighbour said she was watching television in bed when she ‘heard a drilling noise’ lasting ‘two or three seconds’. The female witness likened the sound to a hand drill. After a brief pause of around five seconds, she heard the ‘drilling noise’ again for a similar amount of time.Seconds later, the neighbour added: ‘I heard a girl screaming, then I heard her scream again, saying ‘get the f*** out’.’The woman said the screaming was ‘really loud’ – with the whole incident lasting around 15 seconds in total. A second near-neighbour living with her parents had just gone to bed after watching the Anthony Joshua heavyweight boxing match the previous evening and was ‘tossing and turning, trying to get to sleep’, when she heard ‘a loud bang’.’It was a bang I’d not heard before. My first thought was ‘was it a firework?” she recalled.The neighbour said she heard a female ‘scream’. She added: ‘I’d say around five seconds later there was another scream but not as loud as the first.’She then heard car tyres ‘screaming’, ‘maybe a minute or two later’. Police had been called by another neighbour who had found Ms Dale lying groaning in her back yard Ms Dale’s sister (left), her mother Julie Dale (centre) and stepfather Rob Jones (right) arriving at Liverpool Crown Court for the trial of Ian Fitzgibbon, Niall Barry, Sean Zeisz, Joseph Peers and James Witham on October 2 Undated handout photo issued by Merseyside Police of the damage caused to the tyres of Ms Dale’s car The neighbour said she ‘slept through’ when police knocked her address and spoke to her parents in the early hours of the morning – though she later spoke to officers.A third woman living on the street, who was trying to go to sleep, described a loud bang which she likened to a wheelie bin lid being slammed shut, two loud bangs and a ‘quite high-pitched scream’.’The second and third bangs were quite different from the first and sounded like fireworks.’She looked out of her window and saw a ‘light coloured’ car driving away.The final neighbour giving evidence in the trial of five men accused of Ms Dale’s murder said she had been downstairs painting artwork with music on, when she heard a ‘massive crash’.She then said: ‘I thought I heard someone shouting ‘help me, help me’.’ Police Constable Christopher Sinnott, of Merseyside Police, told how he was the first officer at the scene and arrived to find the main panel of the front door lying in the hallway Officers found Ms Dale in the back yard in her pyjamas and what they initially identified as ‘either a gunshot or stab wound’ to her abdomenThe woman, whose back door was open, went outside to have a look if she could see anything but ‘everything was totally silent’. She also looked out of a bedroom window and also ‘could not see anything’.She said she was considering calling police but officers then arrived on the street.Two other neighbours, who were named in court as Tricia and Paul Malcolm, said they heard ‘two to three loud bangs’ which ‘sounded like something hitting metal’.Police Constable Christopher Sinnott, of Merseyside Police, told how he was the first officer at the scene and arrived to find the main panel of the front door lying in the hallway.Police had been called by another neighbour who had found Ms Dale lying groaning in her back yard.PC Sinnott entered with his Taser ready as he checked through the house. He was followed inside by colleagues and they found Ms Dale in the back yard in her pyjamas and what they initially identified as ‘either a gunshot or stab wound’ to her abdomen.He and colleagues attempted resuscitation to no avail and found they had no defibrillator in their cars. An ambulance was called.The dachshund dog owned by Ms Dale and her partner Ian Harrison was ‘cowering’ in its basket in the dining room, PC Sinnott said.The officer said he carried out an initial search of the property and ‘counted between eight and 10 bullet casings’ in the hall.Ms Dale was allegedly murdered after her partner Mr Harrison was involved in a feud with a rival group in Liverpool.Whitham, 41, of Huyton, Liverpool, denies murder along with Niall Barry, 26, of Tuebrook, Liverpool, Ian Fitzgibbon, 28, of St Helens, Sean Zeisz, 28, also of Huyton, and Joseph Peers, 29, of Roby, Liverpool. A sixth man, Kallum Radford, 26, of Kirkby, Merseyside, denies assisting an offender.

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