Olivia Pratt-Korbel: Thomas Cashman jailed for life after shooting 9-year-old
The 34-year-old from West Derby murdered the schoolgirl in her own home last August
Last updated 7th Jul 2023
A man has been jailed for life for shooting dead a nine-year-old girl in her own home in Dovecot last year
34-year-old Thomas Cashman of Grenadier Drive in West Derby was given a life sentence with a minimum of 42 years.
He was found guilty by a jury at Manchester Crown Court last week after chasing a convicted drug dealer into the Korbel's home during gun-chase.
Today he was sentenced to life for the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel, the attempted murder of Joseph Nee, the wounding with intent of Olivia's mum Cheryl Korbel and firearms offences.
During a four-week trial jurors heard about the moment Nee barged into Olivia's home to seek safety from Cashman who had been laying in wait to kill him for half an hour as he watched a football match.
Nee had seen the front door to Olivia's home open after the nine-year-old's mum heard the disturbance and came outside.
"I was the first person to hold my baby girl and I should have been the last."
Olivia's mum Cheryl read a victim impact statement to the court:
"She was so tiny she fitted in one hand, from the tiny little bundle she grew into a toddler.
"Every time we went out we were stopped by everyone saying how beautiful she was.
"A few weeks before she was cruelly taken away from us Liv heard about the princess trust and after talking to me she decided she wanted to donate 12 inches of her hair so, in her words the sick kids could have beautiful wigs.
"Liv was due to have her hair cut on the 27th of august
"Liv never stopped talking, even if she wasn't talking to anyone she would be chatting away. One thing I miss most is hearing her say mum, I miss hearing her voice."
Cherly Korbel also recalled the night Olivia died:
"That night I realised Liv had been shot I was not able to do CPR properly on her because of my injury.
"The neighbours tried all they could to save my baby... my worst nightmare was being separated with Liv.
"I was the first person to hold my baby girl and I should have been the last."
"High-level cannabis dealer"
During his defence, Cashman admitted to the jury he had been a cannabis dealer at the time of the shooting and had been making between ÂŁ3,000 and ÂŁ5,000 per year.
He told the court the assertion that he had scoped out the address on Finch Lane - where he suspected Nee would be - over a dozen times on the day of the shooting was not right, and instead he was going about his normal business selling cannabis.
The prosecution accused Cashman of lying and fitting his defence around the events of that day. He had previously denied murdering Oliva, the attempted murder of Joseph Nee, the wounding of Olivia's mum and two firearms offences.
"Cashman has taken their daughter away from them and I hope he reflects on that every day when he wakes up behind bars."
Serena Kennedy, the Chief Constable of Merseyside Police said:
"He's a cowardly despicable person who has murdered a nine-year-old child and my absolute heartfelt condolences go out to the family of Olivia and that's who we should focus on.
"I can't imagine the pain they are going through every day but Cashman has taken their daughter away from them and I hope he reflects on that every day when he wakes up behind bars and every night when he goes to sleep."
She added: "I've got two daughters myself they're 21 and 23 and I've had all those moments with them in terms of going to high school and going off to university they're things that Oliva's family are never going to experience but what that absolutely does for me is renew my commitment to tackling serious and organised crime to make sure people like Cashman are taken off the streets so they're relentlessly pursued and they're put behind bars so that no family ever has to go through what Olivia's family are going through."