Sean Zeisz has admitted he was “embarrassed” having “run and hid” after being assaulted at Glastonbury.
He is one of five men currently on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of the murder of Ashley Dale. The Knowsley Council worker died aged 28 after being shot in the abdomen and collapsing in her back yard on Leinster Road in Old Swan shortly after midnight on August 21 last year.
James Witham had admitted kicking down the door of her house, where she was spending the evening alone with her dachshund Darla, and spraying the property with bullets from a Skorpion submachine gun. The 41-year-old is expected to claim he did not see or hear Ashley and was instead attempting to “send a message” to her boyfriend Lee Harrison, who was not present at the time.
READ MORE: Live updates from Ashley Dale murder trial
Zeisz continued giving evidence to the jury from the witness box for a second day today, Tuesday. He was asked under cross-examination by Paul Greaney KC about events at Glastonbury Festival, which are said to have formed part of a feud involving Harrison and his associate Jordan Thompson in the weeks before the shooting.
The prosecutor put to him that he had been punched by the latter, nicknamed “Dusty”, “in front of” his then girlfriend, Olivia McDowell, and then “ran away and hid” behind a nearby bar, which he agreed with. Mr Greaney asked: “Did you feel humiliated that all that had happened in front of your then partner, Liv?”
Zeisz, who reported that he had actually been hit by a man known as “Wally” rather the Thompson, replied: “Just more worried about getting hit again.”
Mr Greaney continued: “Let me use a different word. You’d been punched in front of your girlfriend.
“Your reaction had been to run away and hide. You were at the very least embarrassed by the fact that had happened, and that was the way you reacted given it happened in front of your girlfriend?”
Zeisz, who went by the nickname “Zest”, said: “Well yeah. Yeah.”
Mr Greaney said: “You’d been hit, which can’t have been nice. Your reaction wasn’t to stand and fight, but run away and hide.
“All of that had happened in front of your girlfriend. My question is, were you embarrassed that Liv had seen you run away from a fight?”
Zeisz replied: “A little bit, yeah. I was more worried about more trouble breaking out.”
Mr Greaney then referred to a text message Ashley had sent to a friend before her death, in which she said: “Zest got smacked Saturday and again last night by all Joker and that. Dusty hit him too.
“I dunno if Liv got hit. She ended up legging Zest and staying with us, with Dusty.”
Mr Greaney said: “Ashley was reporting to Sophie that Dusty had been involved in the assault upon you and Liv had legged you, left you, to stay with her and Lee Harrison. You agree that Ashley was there at Glastonbury.
“I’m not going to suggest that she saw the assault. After you were assaulted, she spent at least some time with Liv and Liv had been there when you were assaulted?”
Zeisz said: “She was. Yeah.”
Mr Greaney asked: “Do you know any reason Ashley developed such a misunderstanding about Dusty’s involvement?”
Zeisz responded: “He was there in the area, but he didn’t hit me. I asked him the following day, ‘did you hit me?’, he said no.”
Mr Greaney said: “The fact you had to ask him if he hit you might suggest you didn’t know who hit you.”
Zeisz replied: “Yeah I knew, yeah. I knew who it was.”
Mr Greaney continued: “Why did you ask him?”
Zeisz said: “Because Ashley had said it to Liv. The next day when we broke up, Liv said ‘Ashley said he hit you’.
“I said he never. I said ‘did you hit me yesterday?’, he said ‘no, no’.
“It was nothing to do with me, There was Chinese whispers everywhere, everyone’s saying Dusty’s done Zesty.”
Mr Greaney told the court that “things badly deteriorated” after Glastonbury and played a voice note in which Ashley described the fallout to her friend Sophie on August 6, including references to “Branch” – the nickname of co-defendant Niall Barry. She said in this message: “Obviously like Wally and that don’t like Branch.
“Even after that happened in Glasto, Lee was with Liv and Zest after it. That weren’t anything to do with Lee.
“Obviously Lee hates Branch, but Lee just tries his best to stay out of it all. He can’t be a***d with murder.
“We’ve had to proper speak about it all this week. I’ve had to say to him, you need to just be honest about everything, you need to tell me everything.
“I don’t normally wanna know, but you’ve half got to prepare me for the worst. I need to know what could happen.
“I said, don’t sugar coat any of this situation with Branch to me. I know that Lee doesn’t want this.
“Lee said to me ‘if Branch come to me and said let’s quash it, I would quash it’. He said ‘I don’t wanna have murder with him, I don’t want all this to be happening with him’.
“He said ‘he’s not worth this. He’s not worth me ending up in jail or wherever, worse’.
“Lee’s obviously always spoke to Zest, even though he knew he was mates with Branch. So after that happened in Glasto, Lee lost everyone because he stayed with Liv cos he Liv was in hysterics, crying on the floor.
“He’s come and got me from by the bar in the Gas Tower and been like, ‘you need to come and sort Liv out and that’. I didn’t even know what had happened.
“Five minutes later, Zest popped up with a fire extinguisher in his arms. Then Ian’s popped up from nowhere, and Lee was with them.
“Lee said to Wally before it happened, ‘nah lad don’t, he’s with his bird, just leave it. Don’t be smacking him here, just wait till you’re home’.
“Dusty got himself involved for no reason. But Dusty and Zest seen each other in Glasto after it happened, and nothing happened.
“But then, obviously, Liv got seen walking with Dusty the next day. And that’s obviously why Zest legged her.
“If Liv wouldn’t have went and legged Sean and went and seen Dusty, this murder wouldn’t have happened. Liv going and seeing Dusty has brought all this on.
“The Branch situation with Lee is a totally different story. The fact that that Liv has went and seen Dusty has half aggravated the Branch situation now.
“She’s obviously my mate and speaks to Lee and obviously Lee speaks to Zest, so that half kept the peace a little bit with the Branch situation. That’s why nothing really happened.
“Now Liv’s not with Zest, he’s like well f*** her and f*** anything that she cared about. Now, cos Lee’s mates with Dusty, Zest is obviously thinking ‘well f*** Lee’.
“Now Branch is on his high horse and now Lee’s got dragged back into it. But if she wouldn’t have split up with Zest and went and seen Dusty, I don’t reckon any of this would have happened, and I don’t reckon Lee would have had that further murder with Branch on the phone either, the other day.
“Branch wouldn’t have been saying he was coming down the estate and all that if Liv hadn’t done this, because that’s just aggravated everything. She even said that to me herself, the night when it all happened, she said ‘this is all my fault, because I was the peacemaker and now I’m dragging you and Lee into it all’.”
Mr Greaney asked of the voice note: “Ashley said that, after you’re assaulted, Liv was in hysterics. Do you agree with that?”
Zeisz said: “I’m not too sure. I wasn’t there.”
Mr Greaney: “And that Ashley had looked after Liv?”
Zeisz: “That’s what Lee said to me.”
Mr Greaney: “She said afterwards, you popped up and so did Ian. Do you agree with that?”
Zeisz: “Just bumped into each other. Yeah.”
Mr Greaney: “Do you accept that, shortly after you were assaulted, you bumped into Ian Fitzgibbon? Did you tell him what had happened?”
Zeisz: “Yes.”
Mr Greaney: “She said again that Dusty was involved in the attack upon you. You disagree with that?”
Zeisz: “Yes.”
Mr Greaney: “Ashley went on to say Liv had been seen walking with Dusty the next day and that’s why you legged her. Had Liv been seen walking with Dusty the next day?”
Zeisz: “Yes.”
Mr Greaney: “Had you become angry about that?”
Zeisz: “No. I believed there was nothing in it.
“She told me it was innocent, he was 10 years younger. This is on the Monday, when we’ve come out of the festival.”
Mr Greaney: “By that Monday, you’d been embarrassed by running away from the fight?”
Zeisz: “I seen them on the Sunday and spoke to the lads who hit me. It was all done, forgotten about.”
Mr Greaney: “You were embarrassed about Liv being seen walking with Dusty. She’d been seen with her arms around him.”
Zeisz: “Yes. Something like that.”
Mr Greaney: “Ashley said if Liv wouldn’t have went and legged Sean and went and seen Dusty, this ‘murder’ wouldn’t have happened. Liv, by going and seeing Dusty, has brought all this – this being the problems she was having and Lee was having.”
Zeisz: “It was nothing to do with Lee.”
Mr Greaney: “From those small origins, a really deep feud reignited.”
Zeisz: “No.”
Mr Greaney: “Ashley added the Branch situation with Lee is a totally different story?”
Zeisz: “Yeah.”
Mr Greaney: “The fact that Lee has went and seen Dusty has half aggravated the Branch situation now, she went on to say that the relationship between Liv and you had kept the peace between you and Lee Harrison and Niall Barry. Do you agree that while you were going out with Liv, the peace had been kept because Liv was friends with Ashley?”
Zeisz: “I don’t really agree with that.”
Mr Greaney: “She said now your relationship with Lee was over, the beef was back on.”
Zeisz: “No. Wrong.”
Mr Greaney: “That’s the truth of what happened, isn’t it?”
Zeisz: “It’s not. No.”
Mr Greaney: “For as long as you were in that relationship, the peace between Harrison and Barry was kept.”
Zeisz: “That’s wrong.”
Mr Greaney: “Once that relationship was gone, as it was, there was nothing to hold back Niall Barry. That’s what happened, isn’t it?”
Zeisz: “No.”
Mr Greaney: “What was behind those events on August 21 started in Glastonbury, which reignited that feud between Barry and Harrison.”
Zeisz: “It didn’t. No.”
Mr Greaney: “The simple fact of the matter is that you were humiliated at Glastonbury. Dusty then took up with Liv.
“Dusty was friends with Lee Harrison. All of that reignited that feud between the two men, and you were part of it.”
Zeisz: “No. It had nothing to do with Liv.”
Mr Greaney told a jury of five men and seven women during the prosecution’s opening earlier this month that Witham and “driver” Joseph 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.
The court 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 Ashley 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.”
Mr Greaney said that “certain events at Glastonbury Festival” in June 2022 had “played an important part” in the alleged motive behind the attack, adding: “Ashley Dale and Lee Harrison, her boyfriend, attended the festival, as did at least four of the defendants – Sean Zeisz, Niall Barry, Ian Fitzgibbon and James Witham. A group of other young men from Liverpool were also present, one of whom was a person called Jordan Thompson – who was known as Dusty.
“Lee Harrison seems to have had an association with the group of which Dusty was part. 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 also heard that Barry then sided with Zeisz, with this “fresh” dispute having compounded a “separate and longstanding antagonism towards Lee Harrison”. Mr Greaney said: “Niall Barry used these new events at Glastonbury to reignite that old feud and, as tensions simmered in Liverpool, Niall Barry made a series of threats directed towards Lee Harrison.”
Witham, of Ashbury Road in Huyton, Zeisz, of Longreach Road in Huyton, 26-year-old Barry, of Moscow Drive in Tuebrook, 29-year-old Peers, of Woodlands Road in Roby, and 28-year-old Fitzgibbon, of Heigham Gardens in St Helens, have pleaded not guilty to murdering Ashley Dale, conspiracy to murder Lee Harrison and conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon, namely a Skorpion submachine gun, and ammunition with intent to endanger life. Witham has admitted the lesser charge of manslaughter.
A sixth defendant – 26-year-old Kallum Radford, of Trentham Road in Kirkby – denies assisting an offender. The trial, before Mr Justice Goose, continues.
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William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
