Boyfriend of murder victim jailed for drug offences
The boyfriend of a woman who was killed in a shooting has been jailed for five years for conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Ashley Dale, 28, was killed when a gunman forced his way into her home in Old Swan, Liverpool, in August 2022 following a feud between her attackers and her boyfriend Lee Harrison, 27.
On Friday, Liverpool Crown Court heard Harrison had been jointly in control of a line supplying crack cocaine and heroin in October and November last year.
He and co-accused Terence Rice were stopped in a BMW X3 after travelling into Liverpool through the Wallasey tunnel on November 25, the court heard.
Holly Menary, prosecuting, said: 'Lee Harrison was observed to be very agitated and nervous when stopped.'
She said Harrison, in the passenger seat, was holding an iPhone but refused to provide police with the PIN.
Ms Menary said a Nokia mobile phone found in the car was used for a drugs line which had sold class A drugs on at least 247 occasions, with a street value of up to £22,230, during October and November.
Officers searched Harrison's address on Liverpool Road, Huyton, which he shared with his mother Sharon, and found cocaine with a value of up to £11,900 as well as adulterant for cocaine, scales and small plastic bags.
He admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine and possessing cocaine with intent to supply at a hearing in December.
Stephen McNally, defending Harrison, said: 'This offending came on the back of a difficult period in his life for reasons which he does not wish me to ventilate in open court, which I stress he does not claim excuse any of his offending.
'He suffered a significant bereavement in his life. Following that he lost his employment, lost his home, returned to living with his mother and had to claim benefits to make ends meet.'
He said Harrison had sought a 'quick fix' for his financial situation.
He added: 'He was a foot soldier who was required to get his hands dirty.'
Sentencing Harrison, the judge said: 'This is serious offending, not least because class A drugs, particularly, destroy people's lives and you were making a commercial business out of destroying people's lives.
'These drugs break up families, corrode society, they very adversely affect people's mental health and wellbeing, and you were making a trade out of that misery.'
Harrison, appearing by videolink from HMP Liverpool, showed no reaction to the sentence.
A trial in 2023 heard he had been 'totally unco-operative' with police following his partner's murder.
Ms Dale, an environmental health worker for Knowsley Council, was shot by gunman James Witham, 42, who opened fire with a Skorpion submachine gun in her home in the early hours of August 21 2022.
Witham and three other men – Niall Barry, 28, Sean Zeisz, 29, and Joseph Peers, 30 – were convicted of her murder last year and all sentenced to minimum terms of more than 40 years.
Their trial heard a feud between Barry and Harrison, which started years before over the theft of drugs, was 'reignited' at the Glastonbury festival in June 2022.
Voicenotes and messages sent to friends by Ms Dale in the two months before her death were played during the trial describing the fall-out.
Ms Dale's mother Julie Dale previously described Harrison as 'absolutely despicable'.
Speaking after the murder trial, she said: 'We've had no remorse from him. We've had no support from him. We have no admittance that it's anything to do with him.
'He still carries on going about his life, leaving the country, going on holidays, lording it up, shall we say, like nothing's happened and nothing's changed for him, and it's absolutely disgusting, it really is.'
Harrison's co-accused, Rice, of Bearwood Road, Kirkby, was sentenced to five years and two months for conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin, as well as offences of affray, drug and drink-driving and obstructing a police officer relating to an incident in Cumbria last June.
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