THE SILENCE THAT SPEAKS VOLUMES
It’s 12 days since the shooting that horrified Britain, and on the streets of Liverpool, one man’s name is on everyone’s lips. Yet his fearsome reputation means few dare help police
BIRKDALe Court is a smart, gated complex on the outskirts of Liverpool. Many of the flats have balconies and French windows overlooking a private courtyard. Audis, Peugeots and Volvos are parked in the bays. Across the road, where detached houses sell for £500,000, a Mercedes soft-top sits on a drive.
This gentrified corner of Huyton has little in common with the rest of Knowsley, one of the most deprived areas of the country, where traditional communities have been eroded by a cancerous criminal underclass. Standing here on a bright, late summer morning, you could hear a pin drop. It’s hard to imagine the pandemonium of a few days ago. On Thursday at about 10.20pm, the peace and quiet was shattered as a police helicopter began hovering overheard.
‘Get back inside!’ residents who ventured out to discover what was happening were told.
Moments later, officers in balaclavas and body armour, carrying Heckler & Koch semi- automatic weapons, jumped out of a small convoy of vans and disappeared through the metal gates of Birkdale Court.
Their ‘target’ was a 36-year-old man staying in a rented apartment, who was arrested on suspicion of murder. Could he be the black- clad figure, carrying two guns, who was caught on CCTV running away from the house where nine-year- old Olivia Pratt-Korbel was shot and killed just a few miles away on August 22?
He was released on bail before the chilling CCTV footage was made public, then was immediately recalled to prison for breaching the terms of his licence.
The individual is from a feared local crime family and the breaches in the ‘ terms of his licence’ are understood to relate to a lengthy jail sentence he received for his part in a security van hold-up several years ago.
His name is common knowledge in certain parts of the city and was passed to police, along with the names of various others, after Olivia died. He ‘ remains under investigation,’ the Merseyside force stressed in a statement.
But despite the co- operation of many members of the public who have come forward with information, it is becoming increasingly clear that misguided loyalty or the fear of possible repercussions — that ‘ snitches get stitches’, a saying well- known in Liverpool — is preventing others who could provide a vital breakthrough in the case from contacting police.
The detective leading the inquiry admitted his officers face the same culture of omerta (silence when questioned) that hampered the Rhys Jones murder hunt 15 years ago.
His comments, which accompanied the recent release of the CCTV clip of the gunman, left no room for doubt. ‘ Know that there will be people shielding and helping this man,’ said Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Kameen. ‘It is beyond comprehension how anyone can protect a person who is responsible for killing a nine-year-old little girl.’
Both misguided loyalty and the ‘no-grass culture’ were evident when I went to Liverpool this week.
Among bouquets left near the house in Kingsheath Avenue, Dovecot, where Olivia was gunned down was one from the ‘Nee family’ that read: ‘So sorry for your loss of beautiful Olivia. Rest in peace. Thinking of all [the] family.’
It was a bullet intended for Joseph Nee that killed Olivia when he ran inside her home in an attempt to escape from the pursuing shooter.
Not everyone outside this community will be aware that Nee’s brother also lives in Kingsheath Avenue, a stone’s throw from Knowsley, and drove his wounded sibling — a burglar and drug dealer — to hospital after rushing to help him when he was told he had been shot by a rival.
What must it be like for Olivia’s parents, knowing that this man lives a few doors away? When Nee’s mother placed flowers at the scene, a witness described how some women in the street appeared to portray her almost as a victim, by claiming her son would have ‘taken a bullet himself’ and would never have burst into the property if he had realised a little girl was inside.
If Nee has a scintilla of remorse, he could start by telling police who the gunman was, as it is almost impossible to believe he doesn’t know. Then maybe, just maybe, the words on the card might mean something. But he has remained silent.
One of his relatives, on the other hand, made their feelings known in a post on their Facebook account that showed a gun with the caption ‘snitches get stitches’.
As Det Chief Supt Kameen said, the death of a little girl in the place where she should have been safest breaks all boundaries, even for members of the criminal subculture. Understandably, given the febrile atmosphere, not everyone was prepared to speak to us. Of those who did, none wanted to be identified.
‘People are frightened to talk,’ said one woman pushing a pram along the street, with her elderly motherin-law nodding in agreement.
‘ They are scared of the repercussions,’ added the pensioner, who has lived in the street all her life. ‘If people are bad enough to shoot a little girl, they are bad enough to shoot anyone.’
Another resident said the name of
A Facebook post showing a gun reads ‘snitches get stitches’
the man said to be responsible was being discussed almost immediately after the shooting. I asked her how she knew.
‘Everyone knows,’ she replied. ‘Everyone was talking about him. It was out before anyone was even arrested. People are wary about coming forward because we all know the family.’
Answering the door in neighbouring Huyton is a woman who worked in the school where the person at the centre of this speculation and several of his brothers were pupils.
She said they were always trouble and particularly remembers the eldest boy. ‘ He used to clip the wings off birds in the playground,’ she recalled. He grew up to be the boss of an organised crime gang, as did a second brother. A third family member carried out a vicious attack on a taxi driver and has a history of domestic violence.
All of them, who live within a few miles of the murder scene, have served long stretches inside.
‘Is there some reticence from some people to come forward? Of course there is,’ Councillor Peter Mitchell, who represents Croxteth ward, told the Liverpool Echo. ‘ They are all scared and are recovering from the news of a child being murdered in her own home. We would all be scared. But everybody around here wants these people found.’
Those quick to criticise Merseyside police, who are dealing with at least four ongoing murder investigations, including that of graduate Ashley Dale, 28, shot in her back garden just hours before Olivia was killed, should keep this in mind.
The extent of Liverpool’s dark underbelly was made clear by the crackdown on organised crime in the city following the tragedy.
Police have carried out dozens of raids and made 349 arrests in a city with a population of around 500,000. This figure rises to 906,000 if you count the wider metropolitan area but is still more than nine times smaller than London.
Knowsley, which has the largest number of children aged 16 and 17 not in education, employment or training of all the Merseyside boroughs, is a breeding ground for gangs. On some estates, youth unemployment had reached 80 per cent in 2019 and an estimated 49 per cent of male inhabitants are still out of work.
Dr Robert Hesketh, of Liverpool John Moores University, has spent years researching Merseyside’s criminal landscape.
‘These communities are very insular,’ said Dr Hesketh, who has lived in Knowsley all his life.
‘If someone speaks out, it would not be very hard to find out who that person is. I’ve seen the repercussions of that for families on estates — houses smashed up and “grass” painted all over them.’
The parallels with the shooting of Rhys Jones, caught in the conflict between rival gangs on his way home from football practice on August 22, 2007, are impossible to ignore.
Within days of his death, the name of his killer (Sean Mercer), aged 16 at the time, was sprayed on shop shutters and the sides of buildings around Croxteth.
But it wasn’t until eight months later that Mercer was finally charged after the youth who had hidden the gun, known as Boy X during the trial, agreed to testify.
The antique Smith & Wesson revolver, initially concealed in his dog kennel, was eventually found in the attic of his house.
The man who murdered Olivia is unlikely to have made the same mistake as a teenage delinquent. ‘ They are not kids like Sean Mercer,’ said Dr Hesketh. ‘The gun is probably already at the bottom of the Mersey.
‘Police need someone to provide direct evidence of what they know. They would have to be taken out
‘Everyone round here is scared but wants these people found’
‘ They are not kids. The gun is probably in the Mersey already’
of the area and given a new identity by the police.’
The chain of events that ended in Olivia’s death, I have been told, began in a pub where fans were watching the game between Manchester United and Liverpool.
Among them was Joseph Nee, according to the source. Word that he was there reached the gunman from someone who was also in the bar. By the time Nee left, according to this account, the gunman was already on his way to ‘meet’ him. He caught up with him in Kingsheath Avenue.
I have been unable to confirm the narrative but it sounds plausible, even if the pub denied Nee was present.
Photos on Facebook show ‘little munchkin’ Olivia in school uniform, or playing with a rabbit, or wearing full Liverpool strip.
Hundreds of people attended a vigil for her on Wednesday at St Margaret Mary’s RC Church, next to Olivia’s primary school, just over a mile away from her home.
So far two arrests have been made, although the investigation is at an early stage.
‘Just because we have seen two arrests doesn’t mean we need information any less,’ said Det Chief Supt Kameen.
‘Tell us what you know, directly or anonymously, and let us judge how important that information is. Something you might think inconsequential could prove absolutely pivotal in our work.’
The reputation of Liverpool, as well as the memory of a little girl’s time in this world, depends on what happens now.