30 March 2023 , 15:23
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An "infatuated" lover who help a murderer cover up his crime claimed he "groomed" her into them having a relationship and said she'd eventually broken down over Olivia's killing and then come forward about what she knew.
Thomas Cashman, was today found guilty of murdering Olivia and injuring her mum Cheryl Korbel, 46, after chasing Joseph Nee, 35 into their home in Dovecot, Liverpool, last August 22.
As well as Olivia's murder and wounding Cheryl with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, he was convicted of the attempted murder of Nee, 36, guilty of possessing a 9mm self-loading pistol with intent to endanger life and guilty of possessing a revolver with intent to endanger life.
Cashman's associate Paul Russell was also convicted of assisting an offender and will be sentenced on Monday alongside the killer.
The jury of 10 men and two women heard from a woman who claimed that Cashman came to her house after the shooting saying he had "done Joey".
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The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told jurors Cashman asked her for a change of clothes before he left her home and disappeared into the night.
She described her relationship with Cashman as a "fling" and said the night Olivia was shot she was asleep at home when she felt a tapping on her leg and heard someone say “It’s Tommy, it’s Tommy”.
Thomas Cashman has been guilty of murdering Olivia Pratt-KorbelDuring the trial, Cashman tried to distance himself from the woman saying she was lying because she was a "woman scorned" and also claimed her boyfriend owed him £25,000 and wanted him "out of the way".
John Cooper, KC, defending, pressed the woman about her feelings towards Cashman. She said she was "infatuated" with him but claimed she "wasn't in love" with him.
She told jurors: "I’ve never had anyone listen to me like he’s listened to me. He’s just a good listener."
Details of their relationship were aired in court saying it started with Cashman coming to her house to watch TV.
They first had sexual relations after having known each other for several years, she claimed, around which time they began exchanging intimate images.
Olivia Pratt-Korbel was shot in August last year (PA)
Olivia Pratt-Korbel's family have recalled those agonising minutes when she was shot (PA)The woman claimed to jurors that on the first occasion of having sex, it was "actually amazing" but that the third time they had sex it "lasted about 56 seconds", leaving her unimpressed.
While being questioned by the defence she went on to say she felt she was "groomed".
She said: "A lot of time to think about what Tommy done and said. I feel I was groomed, I was lied to.”
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Mr Cooper repeated: “Groomed?”, to which she replied: “A million per cent. A million per cent I was groomed”.
KC Cooper went on to suggest that she had become "angry, resentful and vindictive" towards Cashman and pressed her on whether she had wanted him to commit to a relationship with her.
She said she had no interest in pursuing a relationship with him.
Aerial view of forensics officers at the scene of the shooting (PA)When asked if their relationship had become “toxic” she said: "We’d have a few fallouts, yeah."
The woman was also confronted with her police interviews where she told police she never had sex with Cashman.
Police asked her “have you ever had any sexual liaisons with him?” to which she replied, “no, 100 per cent”.
Police released this image of a Glock 9mm pistol (PA)In the courtroom, the woman explained: "I was petrified to say yes and to go out there and all the drama to come to my door. I was absolutely petrified.
“I was just trying to get rid of the question. I didn’t want to answer that question. I didn’t want it out there. I didn’t want that information to be out there.
“I felt like everything at the time, everything happened so fast. It was like, what am I supposed to do here? I didn’t want it out there. I was scared. I was petrified. I didn’t think I was going back to my own home ever again.”
Speaking about why she decided to come forward she said she had “put two and two together” when she saw the news about Olivia.
She said: “I ended up breaking down because I physically couldn’t hold it inside me no more.”
Forensics officers outside the property following the shooting (PA)
Joseph Nee was the intended target the night Olivia died (PA)In his closing speech, Mr Cooper said the woman was telling “downright lies”.
Mr Cooper said the defendant had a “sordid relationship” with the woman, but was “never ever” going to leave his fiancee for her.
He said: “He was never going to play any meaningful part in her life, that obviously was not what she wanted to hear.”
During the trial when Cashman was asked if he ever confessed to the shooting, he said: “No, I did not, she’s trying to ruin my life.
“She is trying to ruin my life because, for one thing, I won’t leave my partner for her. There’s loads of reasons.”
Cheryl Korbel arrives at Manchester Crown Court (PA)
John Francis Pratt, the father of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel outside Manchester Crown Court (PA)Cashman also claimed the woman’s boyfriend owed him a £25,000 drug debt so she wanted him, “out of the way”.
He told the jury: “She’s ruined my life, what she said, she has done to me, what she’s doing, what she’s done, she’s ruined my life.”
In an interview played to the court, she said: “All I remember was just being tapped on the leg a couple of times. I was just waking up from it, I could just hear ‘it’s Tommy, it’s Tommy’.
“I was like 'is this a nightmare, or is this a dream?' He had his hands in his head, in his hair.”
“It was pitch black. I followed him down the stairs. I’d gone downstairs and I couldn’t understand what he was saying, he was stuttering.
"Something like someone was coming for him, he had a source who told him someone was sitting him off.
“He wanted to do him before he did him.”
She later added: “He was staring at me, ‘get me a pair of pants’. I was half asleep and got anything I can grab.
She says Cashman told her: “I didn’t know where else to go, but I trust you.”
The woman claimed that Cashman told her he had “done the backs” referring to passing through back gardens.
She added: “I asked him where he’d been and he said he went to drop the bits off before he came to my house. I honestly believe it was the guns yeah.”