A man has been found guilty of murdering nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, who was shot dead in her Liverpool home.
Thomas Cashman had denied being the gunman who shot Olivia and injured her mother Cheryl Korbel after chasing a man into their home on 22 August.
The 34-year-old was also found guilty of wounding Ms Korbel, the attempted murder of Joseph Nee and possession of firearms. He will be sentenced on Monday.
Ms Korbel, wearing a pink cardigan and holding a teddy bear, sat with her children Chloe and Ryan in the court.
There were gasps and tears from Olivia’s family as the verdicts were returned.
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During the trial at Manchester Crown Court, which lasted more than three weeks, the jury heard 36-year-old Nee, who has a number of previous convictions, was the intended target of the attack.
He was injured before he ran towards the house after three shots were fired from a self-loading pistol in the street on Kingsheath Avenue in Dovecot.
Cashman fired a further two shots from a revolver into the Korbel family home, one which killed Olivia and the other which became lodged in the door.
He then fled the scene, running across back gardens.
The court heard Nee and his family “had their enemies” and it was not the first time he had been targeted in a shooting.
Thomas Cashman was seen to wipe away tears as he was convicted. His family were heard shouting ‘we’ll appeal it’.
Olivia’s murder made national headlines. A child gunned down inside her own home, where she should have been safest.
The case is considered a real low. But it’s not a new low for Liverpool.
Eerily, exactly 15 years to the very day, 11-year-old Rhys Jones was fatally shot by a stray bullet.
Olivia’s murder carried the sense of history repeating itself. Maybe that’s why it provoked such a strong reaction within the local community.
Detectives say that information flowed into their incident room in a volume they haven’t experienced before.
And even some of those who might have been expected to put up a wall of silence spoke out.
Criminals talked about “a line having been crossed”.
ashman, 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.
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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”.
Cashman told the court she was a “woman scorned” and accused her of lying because she wanted to “ruin” his life.
Det Supt Mark Baker, the senior investigating officer in the case, said Cashman’s actions were “abhorrent”.
He said: “When he found out that he had shot an innocent young girl, he should have had the courage to stand up and come forward.
“Instead, he chose to lie low despite the fact that he was a dad himself.
“He is not worthy of walking the streets of Merseyside, and neither are those who think they can bring fear or intimidation to our communities through the use of firearms.”
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Photo Credit: Getty
