Man found guilty of murdering 9-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel
Thomas Cashman has today been found guilty by jurors at Manchester Crown Court
Last updated 30th Mar 2023
A man has been found guilty of shooting dead 9-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel in her home in Dovecot last year.
Thomas Cashman 34, of Grenadier Drive in West Derby, has been on trial for nearly four weeks for the murder of Olivia on the 22nd of August 2022.
She was killed when a gun chase spilt off the streets into her home.
Over the course of the past month, a jury at Manchester Crown Court has heard how Cashman started a "ruthless pursuit" of Joseph Nee after waiting outside an address where Nee had been watching a Liverpool football game.
He then chased Nee shooting at him three times before the two men ran towards Olivia's house after her mum Cheryl came outside to see what was going on.
"I knew she'd gone"
In a police interview Ms Korbel said: "I spotted this other lad behind him, dressed all in black, couldn't see his face or nothing, and I realised at that point that it was gunshots because, like, the other one was running after him."
At that point, I realised he was running towards me so I ran back to the house."After being given a tissue by her partner, sitting next to her during the interview, Ms Korbel said she closed her front door but it did not shut properly because it was left on the catch.
Speaking through tears, the mother-of-three, with her arm in a bandage, said: "I tried to keep hold of the door, I was just screaming, screaming to go away and then I heard the gunshot and I realised because I felt it hit my hand."
I couldn't keep the door shut because it wasn't locked, and with my hand, I couldn't keep it shut, so I let it go and I think at the same time I heard the baby speak and that's when I turned around and I spotted her sat at the bottom of the stairs."I leant over her and like held her to the left, I just huddled over."
"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 £3,000 and £5,000 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.
He'll be sentenced at a later date.
"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."