Man who shot Ashley Dale complains he’s gone through a year of ‘torture’ | UK News

The man who admitted shooting a 28-year-old woman in her own home says he hasn’t slept in a year and has nightmares every time he falls asleep.

Ashley Dale was killed with a Skorpion machine pistol in Liverpool on August 21 of last year, after an alleged feud between the five men accused of her murder, and her partner Lee Harrison.

James Witham, 41, carried out the shooting and admitted manslaughter earlier this year, but denies murder.

He gave evidence at Liverpool crown court on Wednesday as Ashley’s mum, stepfather and other relatives watched from the public gallery.

He told the court: ‘I haven’t slept for a year. I have nightmares every time I go to sleep.

‘I’ve had a year of torture. What I’ve done to that poor girl.’

Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, asked: ‘It’s been torture for you? It’s been a nightmare for you?’

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

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

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

The defendant, whose DNA was found on a bullet casing in the home in Leinster Road, told the court no one else was involved in the shooting, adding: ‘It’s all down to me.’

Mr Greaney asked: ‘You’re the fall guy for the others, aren’t you?’

Witham replied: ‘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.

Witham said he fired shots in the house of Miss Dale as a ‘warning’ to her partner Mr Harrison, who he claimed 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.

He said: ‘I just went and got a cold shower and just sat on the floor for about 40 minutes in the shower. My head was still battered.’

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

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 added: ‘My brain was doing overtime. I wanted a sauna and steam – it just relaxes you.’

Witham, Barry, 26, 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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