Notes recovered from Dale’s phone told story of row between her boyfriend and a gangster that would lead to her murder

Four men found guilty of murdering Ashley Dale in Liverpool

“We should warn you now that listening to the voice notes is upsetting,” prosecutor Paul Greaney KC told the jury in the opening of the Ashley Dale murder trial.

This trial was “unprecedented” according to the Crown Prosecution Service – the first time the murder victim herself provided the testimony that would put her killers behind bars, in a case where witnesses were too afraid or too criminal to give evidence.