Brother of Olivia Pratt Korbel tells court he heard her cry "I'm scared, i'm scared"

The brother of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel has described hearing her say "I'm scared, I'm scared" before she was shot.

Thomas Cashman, 34, is accused of fatally shooting Olivia and injuring her mother, Cheryl Korbel, 46, after chasing Joseph Nee into their house in Dovecot, Liverpool, on August 22 last year.

In a video interview played to Manchester Crown Court on Friday, Olivia's brother, Ryan Korbel, said he had been in his room when he heard three loud bangs.

He said: "The next thing I heard was footsteps across the landing. It was Olivia, she was running downstairs screaming: 'Mum, I'm scared'."

A police officer asked Mr Korbel if he knew what Olivia was scared of.

He said: "No, she literally said 'I'm scared mummy, I'm scared'.

"Then I heard her footsteps.

"Downstairs she said it another two times 'I'm scared, I'm scared' and then everything else just kicked off."

Mr Korbel said he went to the landing and saw Olivia four or five steps up from the bottom of the staircase, a man lying on the floor and his mother "wrestling" with the door.

He said: "My mum and the fella, who I believe was Joseph Nee, who I'm quite happy to name, then got the door shut.

"The door's burst back open but my mum's behind it.

"An arm's come round the door with a black handgun and another shot's gone off, it could be two, I can't remember.

"Olivia was in hysterics, my mum was in hysterics, my 18-year-old sister was in hysterics, we all were."

Asked to describe the arm he saw appear around the door, Mr Korbel sad: "All I seen was an arm, a hand and a gun."

He told officers Nee was sitting on his doorstep and then went outside, where Mr Korbel followed him and was "screaming abuse".

He said: "I didn't know my sister had been hit at this point.

"He collapsed in the middle of the road."

He said he went back inside and Nee was picked up by two men in an SUV.

Mr Korbel told police: "My mum put Liv in my arms and told me to keep pressure on her chest.

"I didn't now why until I lifted her pyjama top up and seen a hole."

He said a neighbour came in and gave CPR to Olivia.

"Her lips had gone blue, she wasn't even bleeding out the gunshot wound," he said.

"I knew it was over."

Mr Korbel said Nee was injured but he did not think he had been shot while inside the house.

He said: "He cowered behind the door like a shithouse."

He told police: "It keeps going over and over in my head.

Cashman, of Grenadier Drive, Liverpool, denies the murder of Olivia, the attempted murder of Nee, wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm to Olivia's mother, and two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

His trial is expected to last four weeks.

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