'Face the Family' petition reaches 10-thousand signatures
The petition's calling for a change in the law so offenders have to be in court for sentencing
Last updated 25th Aug 2023
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."
Lisa Squire's daughter Libby, who was from High Wycombe, was killed in Hull in 2019.
Lisa is also supporting the campaign.
The man who killed Libby did appear - Pawel Relowicz heard Lisa's victim impact statement before he was jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years.
Lisa said:
"I would have been really upset (if he didn't appear) because it was really empowering to tell him what I wanted to say, even though I don't know if he was listening but everybody else in the court was listening.
"I was able to tell him how much Libby meant to me, the effect on the family, and I really wanted to say to him, and I did say to him, how amazing it is to hear your child say they love you.
"Libby told me that every day - his children will never be able to tell them that they loved him because they were too young. I wanted him to know that - that I had something that he won't get and it was really powerful for me.
"Had he not been there, it would have been almost unbearable"
"At the time, I felt that having seen him get his sentence was good and then afterwards, you always want a bit more. I wanted him to show a bit of emotion or even pretend that he didn't do it, but he didn't. He just sort of took it and went down.
"It was almost a bit of an anti-climax because he just sort of looked, it was very strange, but had he not been there, it would have been almost unbearable.
"That's the only bit of power you have. Your loved one has been taken from you and the person that took them from you is in the same space as you so they should be forced to come up and have the sentence given to them whilst they're in the same space as you and you should be able to give your victim impact statement to them because it does make you feel really powerful.
"Not having that sets you back again."