Was there a missed chance to catch killer a fortnight earlier?

DETECTIVES believe Thomas Cashman tried to shoot drug dealer Joseph Nee two weeks before his botched murder bid led to Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s death, it can now be revealed.

The earlier murder attempt – which saw Nee targeted close to a primary school and children’s playground in the next street to Olivia’s house – mercifully caused no injuries.

Police at the time promised to ‘leave no stone unturned’ in the hunt for the gunman.

But in an illustration of the pervasive evil of gun crime in our cities, both the gunman and the deadly weapon – the same 9mm Glock pistol Cashman used a fortnight later – melted back into the local neighbourhood.

The attack – at 9.45pm on Monday, August 8, last year – took place near Blueberry Park Primary School and beside a field used by dog walkers. A man in a car fired around five shots at a man riding an electric bicycle, according to locals.

They said they feared innocent lives would be lost if the feud sparked further violence.

One said it was ‘so scary to think this is happening on your own doorstep and so close to a park’. A mother living in the area said: ‘You just don’t know what’s going to happen next.’

The following day, police slammed the gunman as being ‘extremely reckless to shoot a weapon on any street at any time of day’.

Jurors were told that Nee had been shot at once before, in March 2018, and that Cashman was not involved. However, they were not told that Nee had been shot at on August 8.

Police have confirmed the same Glock was used in that attack. The trial heard detectives had found ‘some evidence’ that Cashman was the gunman, although it was not strong enough to put before the jury.

On August 22, the Glock is believed to have malfunctioned as Cashman tried to finish off a wounded Nee – causing him to switch to his ‘back-up’ revolver. He fired it through Cheryl Korbel’s front door, fatally injuring her daughter Olivia.