One of the men accused of arranging the shooting which killed Ashley Dale had been allegedly robbed of cocaine worth around £40,000 by a criminal gang, a jury heard today.
One of the men accused of arranging the shooting which killed Ashley Dale had been allegedly robbed of cocaine worth around £40,000 by a criminal gang , a jury heard today.
However, he denies murder and is expected to claim he did not see or hear Ashley when he opened fire in an attempt to "send a message" to Harrison. The prosecution case is that Zeisz, Barry, and Ian Fitzgibbon, 28, "directed" the attack from a flat in Pilch Lane, Huyton.This morning Paul Greaney, KC, prosecuting, began cross-examining Zeisz, who claimed he had "no problem" with Lee Harrison and described Ashley Dale as a "lovely girl".
"Niall got robbed by all the lads that hang around with Lee. Lee stayed with them. Niall stopped speaking to them all." Mr Greaney asked what had been robbed, and Zeisz said drugs, specifically a kilo and a half of cocaine. The jury had earlier been told about messages sent by Barry in 2020 on an EncroChat encrypted phone, under the handle 'BetterTrunk', which resulted in Barry being convicted of conspiracy to sell/transfer a prohibited weapon. The messages showed discussions of the sale of weapons including Skorpion sub-machine guns, referred to as 'Skorps', and other fully automatic firearms.
The prosecutor asked: "Where did James Witham get the sub-machine gun he used to kill Ashley?”. Zeisz said: "I couldn’t tell you. You’d have to ask him when he gets up, I don’t know." The jury has heard the prosecution believe the dispute between Barry and Harrison was "re-ignited" by an incident at Glastonbury festival between Zeisz and Harrison's friend Thompson. Further tension was allegedly added by the suicide of a mutual friend called Rikki Warnick on July 21 last year, which Zeisz has accepted he "blamed on Dusty" for bullying Mr Warnick.
Shooting Robbery Cocaine Criminal Gang Trial
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