In the final months of her life, 28-year-old Ashley Dale voiced her mounting fears in WhatsApp voice notes to friends. These messages would prove instrumental in convicting four men for her murder, with some sent just 30 minutes before she was shot dead at her home in Liverpool.
Detective Chief Inspector Cath Cummings, senior investigating officer, said it was unprecedented for a murder victim's evidence to play such a crucial role. “Ashley was narrating her own story and events that led up to her death,” she said.
Ms Dale was not the intended target; the attack was aimed at her partner, Lee Harrison, due to a long-standing feud reignited at Glastonbury. A gunman kicked down her door and fired indiscriminately with a Skorpion machine pistol in the early hours of 21 August 2022.
In voice notes, Ms Dale told a friend: “I don't want to have to go to Lee's funeral next and I just have a bad, bad feeling about everything.” She added that she felt like she was “looking over me shoulder all the time”. Another note captured her asking Harrison to be honest so she could prepare for “the worst”.
Senior Crown Prosecutor Olivia Travis described the notes as “harrowing” and “chilling”, saying it was unprecedented for a victim to foretell her own death. Ms Dale’s mother, Julie, called her daughter’s death “utterly senseless”, while step-father Robert Jones said the notes were the “only aspect of truth” in the trial.
