Olivia killer’s driver gets new ID.. in jail
Threat sparks switch as girl’s dad hits out
AN ACCOMPLICE who drove Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s killer away from the scene has been given a new identity in jail after receiving a death threat.
Paul Russell, 41, gave Thomas Cashman a lift and helped him to dispose of the clothes he wore when he shot the nine-year-old in her own home.
The getaway driver was jailed for 22 months yesterday after naming Cashman as the killer to police and then entering an early guilty plea over last August’s shooting.
He could be freed by September after judge Justice Amanda Yip said that she would take his time on remand into account.
Olivia’s father, John
Pratt, called the sentence a “joke” before walking out of Liverpool crown court in disgust. Tom Schofield, defending, said that moments after Russell was charged with assisting an offender, his life was threatened by an unknown source.
Mr Schofield added: “The defendant was initially remanded to a prison in Leeds but, owing to a threat to his safety, he was transferred to a prison in an undisclosed location under an assumed name.”
When Mr Schofield added that Russell had found jail isolating, Olivia’s dad could be heard saying “So what?” from the public gallery.
Mr Schofield said: “When [Russell] is released from custody... he will not be allowed to return to Merseyside and he will be given a new identity and will no doubt be looking over his shoulder for some years to come.
“This hardship and disruption he has brought upon himself and, of course, all of that hardship and disruption is but a drop in the ocean of grief that Olivia’s family have had to endure and will continue to endure.”