Gunman who murdered Olivia Pratt-Korbel refuses to show up to court for sentencing
Thomas Cashman claims to have heard CPS singing ‘We are the Champions’ after he was found guilty
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Your support makes all the difference.The gunman who murdered Olivia Pratt-Korbel has refused to show up to court for sentencing.
Thomas Cashman, 34, was last week found guilty of murdering the nine-year-old in Liverpool in August 2022 as he chased a convicted drug dealer into her home.
The bullet which killed Olivia was fired through the front door, hitting her mother in the hand before striking the schoolgirl in the chest.
Mrs Justice Yip said he would be sentenced in his absence after he refused to leave his prison cell.
John Cooper KC, defending, said Cashman had not attended as he was aware that members of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) were allegedly singing ‘We are the Champions’ following the verdict in his trial.
He said: “He has been spoken to and been given certain advice but he is concerned that the matter is turning into a circus.”
Mrs Justice Yip said she regarded his lack of attendance as “disrespectful” to not only the court but those interested in proceedings, including the family of the deceased.
He is also due to be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court for the attempted murder of intended target Joseph Nee, the wounding with intent of Olivia’s mother Cheryl Korbel and two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
Cashman’s family were not in court for the hearing.
During his 19-day trial, the jury heard Cashman admitted to operating as a “high-level” cannabis dealer in the area.
The court heard he had been “scoping out” Nee, the intended target, on the day of the shooting and lay in wait for him, armed with two guns, as he watched a football match at the house of a friend.
Footage played to the jury showed the gunman, wearing tracksuit bottoms that matched a pair worn by Cashman, chasing Nee up Kingsheath Avenue and firing three shots.
The jury was told Nee ran towards the open door of Olivia’s family home, after Ms Korbel came out to see what the noise was, and the fatal shot was fired through the front door.
It hit Ms Korbel in the wrist as she tried to shut the door and struck Olivia in the chest.
Cashman, a father-of-two, said around the time of the shooting he had been at a friend’s house where he counted £10,000 in cash and smoked a spliff.
During his evidence, he told the court: “I’m not a killer, I’m a dad.”
But a woman who had a fling with Cashman told the jury he came to her house after the shooting, where he changed his clothes and she heard him say he had “done Joey”.
Paul Russell, 41, who admitted assisting an offender by driving Cashman away from an address after the shooting and passing his clothes to another person, is expected to be sentenced separately at a later date.
With additional reporting from the Press Association
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