'Face the Family' petition reaches 10-thousand signatures

A petition calling for a change in the law so offenders have to appear in court when they're sentenced, has reached a significant milestone overnight.

It's part of the 'Face The Family' campaign, which was sparked by the outrage across Merseyside and the country when the man who shot nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel in her own home in Dovecot, Liverpool refused to come up from the cells.

Reaching the 10,000 signatures threshold means that the Government will provide a response to the petition. If it gets to 100,000 signatures, the petition will be considered for debate in Parliament.

Just yesterday we told you how Olivia's family and friends are heading out to towns and cities across the country canvassing support.

Speaking during the Face the Family summit last month, Olivia's mother Cheryl Korbel said: "I didn't realise that it was an option for them not to come up to court for sentencing, and was really annoyed.

"The court was full and everyone heard the victim impact statement, apart from him."

In April, Thomas Cashman was jailed for life with a minimum term of 42 years for the murder of Olivia in her own home in Dovecot, Liverpool.

Cashman, 34, refused to come up from his cell to hear his sentence, which would have been an opportunity for Olivia's family to read their victim impact statements to him.

Asked how this made her feel, Cheryl said: "Annoyed, angry... it hurt

"Doing the impact statement, basically it was done over three or four occasions, and really hard then to turn up at court and Cashman doesn't turn up."

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