Sporting a bright pink coat, block heels and dark sunglasses, the girlfriend of child killer Thomas Cashman looked every inch the gangster’s moll as she left court after a jury found him guilty of murder yesterday.
Kayleeanne Sweeney turned up every day during the trial, keeping up her show of loyalty as prosecutors told the jury who her partner really was – a monster who was ‘willing to use a gun anywhere on anyone’ with no regard for the consequences.
The same callousness that would claim the life of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel in the most senseless way possible was grimly useful in Liverpool’s violent underworld – allowing him to to earn £250,000 a year as a ‘high-level’ drug dealer with no tolerance for rivals.
These earnings would fund a lavish lifestyle of flash cars, bikes, holidays and a £450,000 detached house on an upmarket development – with Ms Sweeney, who drove a £33,000 Land Rover Discovery Sport, running a local beauty salon.
Cashman – who had a £35,000 Mercedes C220 AMG and was a fan of Alexander McQueen gear and Moncler trainers – is seen in social media sporting a Hublot watch worth up to £40,000, while the Ted Baker jacket his girlfriend wore to his trial cost £350.
Kayleeanne Sweeney, 34, leaves court after Thomas Cashman was found guilty of the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel, nine. She was wearing a £350 Ted Baker coat
Cashman is seen in social media sporting a Hublot watch worth up to £40,000
Asked in court whether Ms Sweeney knew the source of his wealth – more than seven times the average salary for the area – Cashman, also 34, said: ‘She never asked me, I never told her’, before admitting she would have had ‘suspicions’ he dealt drugs.
The son of a meat porter, Cashman grew up 15-minutes away from Olivia’s house on a terrace of council housing.
After leaving school aged 13 or 14, he found work delivering newspapers and washing cars before getting a job at Welsh fairgrounds.
He met Ms Sweeney when they were barely out of primary school, and they were still teenagers when she became pregnant.
Aged 16 or 17 Cashman began smoking cannabis on a daily basis, he said, making selling it a natural progression.
But by the time of the murder, he was earning up to £5,000 a week selling ‘kilos’ of cannabis to contacts living around Finch Lane – the main road at the top of Olivia’s street.
An underworld source said Cashman got his cannabis from organised criminal gangs who grew cannabis in houses for up to £60,000 a crop.
‘His comfortable life now comes on the back of intimidation and the guns used,’ the source told The Telegraph. ‘Basically his main line of work was being an enforcer alongside people doing cannabis grows.
‘And every time these cannabis grows got robbed he would be recruited by the people that were growing them to do the damage.’
The source said he was known for being ambitious and violent, adding: ‘When I met him, which was 2018, He was just a skinny little rat with a firearm. He can’t fight with his hands but he could use a gun and he was willing to use a gun anywhere on anyone.’
Cashman shared this photo on social media showing him posing with a fleet of luxury cars
Olivia Pratt-Korbel, nine, was murdered in her home after Cashman’s failed attempt to kill a convicted burglar
At his trial, Cashman said he earned as much as £250,000 a year through his illicit trade.
This fortune easily covered the £2,000-a-month rent for the four-bed rented home he shared with Ms Sweeney, while they also rented a luxury two-bed apartment in a block overlooking the River Mersey.
Cashman would deny dealing Class A drugs or having any role in Olivia’s murder, telling the jury: ‘I’m a dad, I’m not a killer’.
Given this attempt to project the image of himself as a family man, it is ironic that his decision to cheat to his girlfriend was the cause of his downfall.
After all, it was a woman who he had a fling with who reported him to police – telling them how he had come round to change his clothes after the shooting and said he had ‘done Joey’.
His claim to have only ever dealt Class B drugs was also challenged by sources in Liverpool, with one man telling the Echo he bought cocaine from Cashman on around eight occasions, and had also purchased the drug from his henchmen.
While Cashman enjoyed showing off his wealth, his last holiday was not to an exotic location abroad – as might be expected – but a staycation to Runcorn in Cheshire.
He and Ms Sweeney went to the town two days after Olivia’s murder, staying at an apartment complex called the Decks where they had an early night after picking up supplies at an Asda.
Police later raided the apartment where Cashman was holed up in Runcorn and arrested him, with bodycam footage showing him claiming to be the victim of a ‘stitch up’.
DailyMail
