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JUSTICE FOR OLIVIA
Thomas Cashman sobs as he’s found GUILTY of murdering Olivia Pratt-Korbel, 9, in front of mum in botched gang shooting
A "RUTHLESS" gunman sobbed today as he was found guilty of murdering a nine-year-old girl in a crime that horrified the nation.
Olivia Pratt-Korbel's mum Cheryl Korbel told waiting reporters she was "ecstatic" as she left court after Thomas Cashman was found guilty of murder on Thursday.
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Olivia was stood behind her mum Cheryl when Thomas Cashman blindly fired into the home in a botched gang hit.
The youngster had moments earlier ran terrified from her bedroom after hearing the commotion in Liverpool, screaming: "Mum, I'm scared".
Cheryl had opened her door to see what was going on when intended hit Joseph Nee attempted to barge his way in as the mum frantically shouted out.
Cashman then opened fire - with the bullet missing Nee and instead travelling through the front door and Cheryl's hand before hitting little Olivia in the chest.
Read more on the tragedy
The monster sobbed today as he was convicted of murder, attempted murder and wounding with intent.
His family swore and yelled "he's innocent" as Cashman was also found guilty of possession of a firearm following a lengthy and harrowing trial.
Oliva's family wept when the verdicts were delivered after eight hours of deliberation as mum Cheryl clutched a teddy bear.
It can now be revealed co-defendant Paul Russell previously pleaded guilty to assisting an offender.
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Manchester Crown Court was told the horror unfolded on August 22 last year in a "pre-planned and ruthless attack" that "went horribly wrong".
Armed with a pistol and revolver, Cashman "lay in wait" for Nee, 35, to leave a friend's home where he had been watching the Utd v Liverpool game.
The convicted burglar was shot at on the street before he barged his way into Olivia's home injured and covered in blood.
Cashman then fired two shots into the house moments after Olivia had come to find her mum because of the noise.
Cheryl told how her daughter "went all floppy" and her eyes went to the back of her head before she said something like sounded like "mum".
The mum-of-three said she yelled out at her son Ryan to help get Olivia up the stairs as she was trying to stem the blood coming from her own wound.
It was then Cheryl realised the youngster had been hit in the middle of the chest as she desperately "gasped for breath".
Cheryl's heartbreaking evidence reduced the courtroom to tears as she told police: "There was just screaming. I heard the gunshot. I realised, because it hit my hand.
"I heard the baby screaming and that's when I turned round and spotted her sitting at the bottom of the stairs.
"I just huddled over her. I lifted her top. That's when I realised she'd been shot in the chest."
As her little girl slipped away in her arms, Cheryl shouted out : "Please Liv, stay with me."
Sobbing in her police interview, she told officers a neighbour came in to start performing CPR but she "knew she'd gone".
Tragically, Olivia couldn't be saved and died in hospital later that night.
Her brother Ryan also told how he heard Olivia ran across the landing , saying "I'm scared mummy, I'm scared" as Nee was targeted outside the home.
He said he rushed out of his bedroom to find a Nee lying in the hall and his mum "wrestling" with the door.
As it burst open, Ryan said an arm came round wielding a black handgun as up to two more shots rang out.
It comes as...
- Thomas Cashman lied to police when he was arrested in dramatic bodycam footage
- Cashman could be seen fleeing the scene after shooting Olivia
- Olivia's mum raised a teddy bear in relief as the verdict was delivered
In a cruel twist, as the youngster's family begged Olivia to stay alive in the blood-stained home, Nee stumbled outside and was picked up by five men in a black car after making a call.
Cashman meanwhile had fled the scene, changed his clothes and told a woman he had "done Joey". His distinctive trousers formed a key piece of evidence in the case.
But the gunman wept in court as he claimed he had been "stitched up" over Olivia's death.
He told jurors: "I'm getting blamed for killing a child and I have got my own children.
"I'm a dad, I'm not a killer, I'm a dad.
"I'm getting blamed for something I haven't done."
The "high-level cannabis dealer" said he was smoking a spliff at the time of the shooting and counting around £10,000 in cash with a pal.
Cashman also claimed the woman who said she heard him confess was "trying to ruin his life" because he won't leave his partner for her.
He said her boyfriend owed him a £25,000 drug debt so she wanted him "out of the way".
But the court was told Cashman was just trying "pull the wool" over the eyes of jurors.
David McLachlan KC, prosecuting, said it was a "case that shocked not simply a city not too far away from here but also a nation".
He said: "The news at the time made front page headlines across the country and this is a case which will live with you forever."
How the horror shooting unfolded
2pm - Joseph Nee, the intended target of the shooting, arrives at the house of Timothy Naylor in Finch Lane in Dovecot, Liverpool. He is driving a Volkswagen Transporter van.
3pm - Thomas Cashman leaves his home as he "scopes out" Nee
3.17pm - Cashman leaves his sister's house and drives past Dovecot Labour Club, with a view of Nee's van on Finch Lane.
3.32pm - Nee leaves Finch Lane to go to Screwfix. Cashman arrives back at his sister's house and leaves two minutes later on foot.
3.56pm - Cashman, with his hood up, arrives on foot at the corner of Berryford Road and looks in the direction of Mr Naylor's house in Finch Lane before turning around. Nee's van is no longer parked outside. The prosecution alleged Cashman intended to shoot Nee, but was "thwarted" because he was no longer there.
4.05pm - Cashman arrives back at his sister's house where he stays for four minutes before driving away in his Citroen Berlingo to Finch Lane and stopping at his brother Kevin Dunne's house, where he would have a view of Mr Naylor's property.
4.46pm - Cashman leaves his brother's house and drives along Finch Lane into Kingsheath Avenue.
5.15pm - Cashman drives past Finch Lane again.
5.20pm - He arrives back at home on Grenadier Drive. In the two hours and 20 minutes since he left home he has been past Timothy Naylor's address on six occasions.
6.42pm - Cashman leaves Grenadier Drive.
7.03pm - He drives into Finch Road, with a view of Finch Lane, before driving around and returning to Finch Lane and his brother's address where he stops for six minutes.
7.16pm - Cashman drives along Finch Lane.
7.23pm - Cashman drives along Finch Lane again. Nee's van has not been outside Mr Naylor's home since earlier in the afternoon. Cashman drives home.
7.53pm - Nee arrives back at Mr Naylor's house ahead of the football match between Liverpool and Manchester United, which kicks off at 8pm.
8.04pm - Cashman leaves his home and again drives to Finch Lane. He then drives to Snowberry Road, where his friends Craig Byrne and Nicky McHale live, and returns to Finch Lane. Nee's van would have been visible on both these occasions.
8.22pm - Cashman arrives home where he stays for eight minutes before leaving again, driving along Finch Lane, where he would have been able to see Nee's van, and then driving to his sister's house on Mab Lane.
8.59pm - Cashman leaves his sister's house, dressed in black, and drives to Aspes Road, where he parks his van.
9pm - Cashman walks along Finch Lane in the direction of Yew Tree Cemetery.
9.21pm - CCTV shows Cashman walking along Finch Lane in the direction of Kingsheath Avenue, where he would lie in wait for Nee armed with two weapons.
9.52pm - The Liverpool vs Manchester United football match ends. Nee leaves Mr Naylor's house shortly afterwards.
9.59pm - CCTV footage shows Nee and Paul Abraham being chased up Kingsheath Avenue by the gunman, who fires three shots in the street. Cheryl Korbel opens her front door to see what the noise is and Nee runs towards it with Cashman in pursuit. Two more shots are fired, one of which goes through the front door, hitting Ms Korbel in the wrist and striking Olivia in the chest.
10pm - A 999 call is made.
10.02pm - Cashman is seen back in Finch Lane, running across the road to Berryford Road. He is seen in Standedge Way and from there is believed to have run through gardens to flee the scene.
10.11pm - Two armed officers arrive at the scene and take Olivia to Alder Hey Children's Hospital.
10.47pm - Cashman, who fled to the house of an unnamed woman, is driven back to his van in Aspes Road by Paul Russell.
11.24pm - Olivia is pronounced dead at Alder Hey Children's Hospital.
The tragedy was the third fatal shooting in Liverpool in less than a week after a council worker was killed just two days before.
Ashley Dale, 28, was shot dead just two miles away in her back garden in Old Swan in a case of mistaken identity.
In a separate bloodbath, Sam Rimmer, 22, was shot dead in Toxteth.
Olivia's death also came 15 years to the day that 11-year-old.
Cashman will be sentenced on Monday along with Russell.
Following the conviction of Thomas Cashman, senior crown prosecutor Maria Corr, of CPS Mersey Cheshire's Complex Casework Unit, said: "This has been a truly tragic case and one of the most complex I have had to deal with in my 32 years with the Crown Prosecution Service.
"At the heart of it is a nine-year-old girl who has lost her life. Olivia Pratt-Korbel was in her own home, with her family, where she should have been safe.
"By contrast, Thomas Cashman is a ruthless criminal who recklessly pursued another man, with no consideration of the consequences. He was intent on violence that night, arming himself with two loaded guns.
"He refused to display any guilt or remorse, denying his involvement throughout and putting Olivia's family through the torment of a lengthy trial
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