I want justice for Olivia says former lover of accused
THE former lover of the man accused of gunning down Olivia Pratt-Korbel yesterday insisted she had tipped off police because she wanted to secure justice.
She denied lying when she claimed Thomas Cashman told her ‘it’s all gone wrong’ after the killing of the nine-yearold in her Liverpool home.
Cashman’s barrister, John Cooper KC, accused her of trying to ‘ruin’ him because he had begun seeing another woman. But in heated exchanges the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she was motivated ‘for that little girl, for the family to get justice’.
She added: ‘I have had to do what I have had to do for a little girl here. I have had to go through a lot of pain, to think about what Tommy done.’
The woman told police that Cashman, 34, dumped the clothes he had been wearing and demanded new ones, saying he had ‘done Joey’ – thought to be a reference to intended victim Joseph Nee. Cross-examining her at Manchester Crown Court, Mr Cooper suggested her relationship with Cashman was central to her ‘dishonest’ account. ‘I know the truth,’ she replied. ‘I’m sure he knows the truth as well.’
Mr Cooper asked whether she had been angry that Cashman had begun seeing someone else last summer.
She replied that she ‘certainly didn’t want a committed relationship’ with ‘a thug’, describing it instead as a fling.
The witness told the court: ‘Thomas Cashman has done what he’s done and he can’t own it, love.’
According to the prosecution, Cashman was engaged in a ‘ruthless pursuit’ last August to shoot Nee ‘at all costs without any consideration for anyone else’. But it went ‘horribly wrong’ when a wounded Nee spotted Olivia’s mother, Cheryl Korbel, 46, at her front door, David McLachlan KC said.
Nee dashed toward the house and Cashman is alleged to have fired a shot through the door that struck Olivia in the chest as she ran downstairs.
Cashman, of West Derby, Liverpool, denies the murder of Olivia, wounding her mother and trying to kill Nee.
He also denies two firearms charges. The trial continues.
‘Begun seeing someone else’