A pitiless Liverpool drug dealer was left sobbing in the dock today after he was found guilty of shooting dead Olivia Pratt-Korbel.
The nine-year-old’s mother Cheryl Korbel held aloft a pink soft toy made in her daughter’s memory outside Manchester Crown Court this afternoon having wept tears of relief as Thomas Cashman, 34, was convicted of murder.
Mrs Korbel, 46, who was shot through the hand with the bullet that killed her darling daughter, said afterwards she was ‘ecstatic’ that Olivia had got justice.
Cashman, 34, bowed his head and cried as he was convicted of the schoolgirl’s murder, which horrified Britain and shone a light on organised crime gangs blighting the lives of ordinary families in Liverpool. He faces life behind bars and will be sentenced on Monday.
The career criminal was also found guilty of the attempted murder of the intended target of the shooting Joseph Nee, 36, as well wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm to Olivia’s mother. He was also convicted two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
There were gasps and then tears of relief from Olivia’s relatives when the jury returned their unanimous verdicts. Her mother Cheryl clutched the pink soft toy while her surviving daughter Chloe sobbed. Police officers around them were also overwhelmed.
It came as new CCTV revealed the moment Cashman fled the shooting and police released bodycam footage of his arrest weeks later. The killer was pinned to the ground by armed officers but protested his innocence and said: ‘Some c*** has stitched me up’.
Drug dealer hitman Thomas Cashman, 34, is found guilty of murdering Olivia Pratt-Korbel
Nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel was killed during the botched hit job on a convicted dealer
Cheryl Korbel (left), mother of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, lifts one of her child’s toys in the air outside Manchester Crown Court after Thomas Cashman was found guilty of murdering her daughter. The teddy was a tribute to Olivia that was also carried at her funeral
The murderer face down on the floor with his hands cuffed behind his back
A bullet hole in the front door of OliviaPratt-Korbel’s family home, where the schoolgirl died inside
A jury at Manchester Crown Court unanimously found Cashman guilty of Olivia’s murder. Amid chaotic scenes he wiped away tears in the dock and turned to his supporters in the public gallery, shaking his head.
His family, including his sister, theb left the courtroom shouting, swearing and protesting his innocence, yelling: ‘We’ll appeal it’. They also screamed at police, claiming they had the wrong man.
Terrifying footage shows the 34-year-old gangster chasing his intended victim Joseph Nee down Olivia’s street in Dovecot, Liverpool.
But as he towered over begging Nee at just before 10pm, his Glock-style handgun malfunctioned.
This sparked a disastrous chain of events that saw Nee flee, pursued by Cashman, who was armed with two guns.
His attempts to kill him ‘at all costs’ then went ‘horribly wrong’ when Olivia’s mother, Cheryl Korbel, opened her front door after hearing bangs.
As 36-year-old Nee tried to force his way into the house, Cashman opened fire which struck 46-year-old Mrs Korbel in the hand.
The bullet travelled through her and hit Olivia in the chest just as she ran downstairs saying: ‘Mum, I’m scared.’ Armed police rushed the youngster to hospital but she was pronounced dead a short time later.
Cashman had tried to hoodwink the jury at Manchester Crown Court during the lengthy trial, lying he had been elsewhere smoking a spliff and counting £10,000 when the murder happened.
But the jury took a matter of hours to find Cashman guilty on all charges, including the murder of Olivia, the attempted murder of Nee, grievous bodily harm against Olivia’s mother, and two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
As relief sounded through the courtroom from her devastated family today, the callous ruthlessness of her killer was plain to see in his police-issued mugshot.
Cashman’s cold, dead eyes could be seen staring down the lens as he is shown with his head cockily thrown back in arrogant aggression.
It was the sheer bravery of the prosecution’s star witness – whose identity can never be revealed – who had a relationship with him that was key in convicting him.
She revealed he had come to her house after the shooting where she heard him say he had ‘done Joey’.
Thomas Cashman’s girlfriend leaving Manchester Crown Court after he was found guilty
Thomas Cashman’s family and friends gestured to crowds outside
John Francis Pratt, the father of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, leaving Manchester Crown Court after Thomas Cashman was found guilty
Terrifying CCTV footage showed a gun-wielding Cashman (in blue) hunting his intended target, Joseph Nee (in red)
The footage was released by Merseyside Police following today’s verdict
Police body cam video showed the moment Cashman was arrested
Under Armour trousers and T-shirts which Thomas Cashman changed into after the shooting and were found at his sister’s house
Cables from a missing CCTV recorder found by police at Thomas Cashman’s home address
Bullet casings found by police in Kingsheath Avenue after the death of Olivia Pratt-Korbel
The woman said she had now left Liverpool but was still ‘terrified’ of giving evidence against Cashman but had chosen to do so because a child had died.
‘When there’s a little girl involved, there’s no form of grassing in my world,’ she said.
‘Because of this little girl. I just feel like if he was any sort of man, he would just… own it.
‘I can’t believe he’s making her family go through this. It’ s child, it’s a child. They all should be ashamed of themselves who are supporting him as well.’
She told the jury: ‘I was petrified of speaking in the first couple of interviews. I was woken up that night by a guy doing a dreadful thing and putting my life danger.
‘I was petrified to speak about Tommy. I’ve got to come home, he’s going to want to see me, what I have been speaking about.
‘I was mortified I have been put in this situation. I don’t know what my life will hold in the next few years.’
Olivia was fatally shot in the chest at her home in Dovecot, Liverpool, on August 22 last year
Cheryl Korbel (centre), mother of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, with family members at Manchester Crown Court where the trial was being heard
Aerial view shows a forensic tent outside Olivia’s home on Kingsheath Avenue on August 25
Cashman, of Liverpool, had denied murdering Olivia, the attempted murder of Mr 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.
At the time of the killing he had said he was smoking ‘a spliff’ and counting £10,000 in cash.
He said: ‘I hold my hands up, I’m a drug dealer.
‘I’m not a bad drug dealer who sells class A drugs, I don’t do anything bad.’
When he was shown a CCTV clip of a black-clad gunman shooting Nee on the evening of August 22 last year he had lied ‘It’s not me’.
He previously told the court he earnt up to £5,000-a-week by selling cannabis.
Cashman also claimed to have been friends with Nee, the alleged intended target, who jurors were told had ‘enemies’ and had been shot at in 2018.
The trial had opened with the nightmarish moment Olivia was killed by the gunman.
Her mother Ms Korbel was at home with her three children and neighbours when she heard a noise and went outside.
Nee ran towards her house with the gunman in pursuit, the court heard.
Father-of-two and drug dealer Thomas Cashman, 34, was convicted of Olivia’s murder today
Artist impression of Thomas Cashman giving evidence at Manchester Crown Court earlier
David McLachlan KC had said: ‘Cheryl Korbel then realised, pretty quickly, the gravity of the situation that she now faced and she turned in a panic, and ran back towards her house.’
She tried to close her door but it did not close fully, the jury was told.
The court heard Nee ran up the driveway of the Korbels’ home and began banging on the door and shouting ‘help me’.
Mr McLachlan told the jury Ms Korbel had said she was screaming at him to ‘go away’.
She said: ‘I heard the the gunshot and realised… I felt it, it hit my hand.’
Mr McLachlan said she then turned round and saw Olivia.
She said: ‘I remember when I turned round and realised the baby was right behind me because she’d come obviously down the stairs cause she’d heard.’
Olivia’s brother Ryan said she had run downstairs screaming: ‘Mum, I’m scared.’
Ms Korbel was then described as being at the top of the stairs with Olivia saying: ‘Stay with me baby.’
The court heard Joseph Nee entered the home of Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s family and the gunman was able to get his hand around the side of the door and fired again, with the bullet lodging in the internal door frame.
Mr McLachlan said the shooter then ran off and Nee stumbled outside the house, where he was picked up in a car and taken to hospital.
Armed officers attended and Olivia was taken to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, the court heard.
