Key witness in Olivia Pratt Korbel case received ‘most death threats in Merseyside Police history’
A key witness in the case of murdered nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel reportedly received the most death threats in Merseyside Police history.
The witness previously had a fling with Thomas Cashman, who was found guilty of Olivia’s murder after he shot her dead inside her home in August.
In court, she bravely told the jury where Cashman was the night of Olivia’s death, tearing apart the killer’s dodgy alibi.
She is likely to spend a considerable time in the witness protection programme and is thought to have received the most death threats in Merseyside Police history, as reported by The Sunday Times.
A police source told the newspaper: “Cashman is a drug dealer and a violent gangster. For her to give evidence against him meant everything — not only to Olivia’s family, but to the communities of Merseyside, and Merseyside police force as an organisation.
“It was the moment when Liverpool’s community said, ‘Enough is enough.’”
Cashman, 34, is due to be sentenced on Monday after being found guilty of the murder of Olivia, the attempted murder of Joseph Nee, the intended target of the attack, and wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm to Olivia’s mother Cheryl Korbel.
During the trial, the jury heard that Olivia’s mother opened the front door after hearing shots on the street.
Nee ran towards the house and made his way inside the property as Cashman fired two shots from a revolver into the Korbel family home, one which killed Olivia and the other which became lodged in the door.
After the bungled gangland hit Cashman fled the scene, running across back gardens, before seeking refuge with his former lover.
During his evidence, 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 the prosecutor’s star witness told the jury Cashman came to her house after the shooting, where he changed his clothes and she heard him say he had “done Joey”.
She told the court she did not understand why Cashman had come to see her on that evening and had “destroyed her life” by coming and asking for help.
The woman said she was “petrified” of speaking out and that she was “mortified” to have been put into the situation by Cashman and ended up “breaking down”, the court heard.
She told jurors that she doesn’t know what “my life will hold in the next few years”, as she considers whether to enter the voluntary witness protection scheme run by the NCA’s UK Protected Persons Service.
Cashman claimed in court she was a “woman scorned” and accused her of lying because she wanted to “ruin” his life.
Additional reporting by PA