Liverpool shooting: Silence over names is ‘protecting killers’ in Olivia Pratt-Korbel case

‘You know their names; now we need the names of their murderers’ the force says

Police have accused anyone withholding the names of those involved in the recent string of fatal shootings in Liverpool of “protecting killers”.

The remark by Merseyside Police follows the fatal shooting of Olivia Pratt-Korbel, nine, who was shot on Monday night by a gunman who chased his intended target into her family home in Dovecot, also injuring her mother, Cheryl Korbel, 46.

On Saturday, police investigating Olivia’s shooting said there was “no hiding place” for those involved after two men arrested on suspicion of her murder were released on bail.

The force said that one of the men, 36, arrested on suspicion of murder and two counts of attempted murder was recalled to prison after breaching the terms of his licence. A second man, 33, from Dovecot, who was arrested on Friday, was released on bail.

Doubling down on their warning on Sunday, the force launched a social media campaign, saying: “You know their names; now we need the names of their murderers.”

The schoolgirl was one of four people killed within a matter of days in Merseyside amid a rise in organised knife and gun crime.

Four people were killed within a matter of days of one another in Merseyside. Pictured: (clockwise from top left) Olivia Pratt-Korbel, Karen Dempsey, Sam Rimmer and Ashley Dale (Merseyside Police)

Karen Dempsey, 55, of Krechin Road, Kirkby, was found stabbed in a pub car park in town last Monday. Her son, Jamie Dempsey, 32, has been charged with her murder.

The force is also appealing for information about the killing of Ashley Dale, 28, a council worker, who was found wounded in her back garden in Old Swan, Liverpool, in the early hours of 21 August. She died a short time later in hospital.

Meanwhile, four people have been arrested on suspicion of the murder of Sam Rimmer, 22, on 16 August.

Police said Mr Rimmer was “murdered in cold blood” in the Dingle area of the city, and urged the public to help identify four suspects seen travelling on two electric bikes and to find the gun.

A video issued as part of Merseyside Police’s Twitter campaign on Sunday includes a voiceover, saying: “We’ve got parents who’ve lost their children.

“We’ve got a nine-year-old girl who won’t celebrate her 18th birthday. She won’t celebrate her wedding. She won’t have children of her own.

Flowers are left near the scene of an incident in Kingsheath Avenue, Knotty Ash, Liverpool, where nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel was fatally shot last Monday night (PA)

“If you’ve got information and you’re withholding it, you’re protecting the killers.

“We need your information. Provide that information to us and we’ll do the rest.”

Pleas were issued by members of Olivia’s family, who previously said that speaking up “is not about being a ‘snitch’ or a ‘grass’; it is about finding out who took our baby away from us”.

Police have also renewed their appeal for information and want to speak to anyone who saw a black Audi Q3 car in the Kingsheath Avenue area of Dovecot in the days before the shooting.

The car, which has been seized by officers, is believed to be the same vehicle used to take the intended target, drug dealer and burglar Joseph Nee, 35, to hospital after he too was shot in the incident.