Olivia Pratt-Korbel killer is refused application to appeal sentence

He was given a 42-year minimum sentence after killing the 9 year old

Thomas Cashman was jailed for murdering 9 year old Olivia Pratt-Korbell
Published 15th Nov 2023

Appeal judges have refused to give Olivia Pratt-Korbel's killer permission to challenge a 42-year minimum jail term.

Thomas Cashman, now 35, was found guilty of murdering nine-year-old Olivia at her home in Liverpool in August 2022.

Three appeal judges on Wednesday dismissed his application to appeal against sentence.

The shooting of Olivia occurred as Cashman, of Grenadier Drive, West Derby, Liverpool, was chasing convicted drug dealer Joseph Nee, who tried to run into the little girl’s home in a bid to escape.

Cashman opened fire, hitting Olivia’s mother Cheryl Korbel in the wrist as she tried to keep the door shut on Nee, with the same bullet killing her daughter.

In May, Solicitor General Michael Tomlinson KC said Cashman, a high-level Liverpool drug dealer, would not have his jail term increased.

It came after a number of requests were made for the father-of-two’s prison time to be lengthened via the unduly lenient sentence scheme.

Mr Tomlinson said Olivia’s “senseless murder” had “shocked and sickened the nation.”

She added:

“Having received detailed legal advice and considered the issues raised very carefully, I have concluded Cashman’s case cannot properly be referred to the Court of Appeal”.

Olivia’s mother is among those campaigning for a change in the law to allow judges to force offenders to attend sentencing hearings, after Cashman refused to come up to the dock when he was sentenced.

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