Ashley Dale's heartbreaking last photo and text to mum minutes before she was killed

A jury was shown the heartbreaking last photo of Ashley Dale and her final messages to her mum and friends just minutes before she was killed.

The 28-year-old joked how her miniature Dachshund, Darla, had been spooked by something outside and sent a selfie of the pair together to her friend less than an hour before she was shot dead, the Liverpool Echo reports. She told her mum her car alarm was going off and said her dog was 'scared', jurors were told.

At the time her messages were being sent, the men who allegedly killed her were outside slashing the tyres of her car, prosecutors said. Ashley's family were in tears in courts as her messages were read out.

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The trial of six men in relation to her death is continuing at Liverpool Crown Court. James Witham, now 41, has admitted kicking through the front door of her home in Leinster Road, Old Swan, in the early hours of August 21 last year.

Witham accepts opening fire with a Skorpion sub-machine gun and firing the bullet that killed Ashley, but will claim he did not see or hear her and was instead attempting to 'send a message' to her boyfriend, 25-year-old Lee Harrison, who was not at home. He has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denies murder.

Last week the jury heard the prosecution case is that Witham and a second man, Joseph Peers, 28, were 'dispatched' to kill Harrison by three men - Niall Barry, 26; Sean Zeisz, 28; and Ian Fitzgibbon, 28 - who were allegedly directing the hit from a flat in Pilch Lane, Huyton.

Yesterday (October 10), Alex Langhorn, junior counsel