Murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel

On the evening of 22 August 2022, around 10 pm, Olivia Pratt-Korbel, aged nine, was shot at the front door of her family's home on Kingsheath Avenue in Dovecot, Liverpool. Her mother, Cheryl Korbel, had opened the door after hearing a disturbance outside, with Olivia standing behind her. Joseph Nee, a 35-year-old convicted drug dealer and burglar who was on licence, attempted to force his way into the house while fleeing from Thomas Cashman, who was armed and wearing a balaclava. Cashman fired four shots; one bullet passed through Cheryl Korbel's hand and into Olivia's chest, fatally wounding her. Olivia was pronounced dead the same day at Alder Hey Children's Hospital. Her siblings were upstairs in the house at the time of the shooting.

The investigation by Merseyside Police involved multiple arrests over several weeks, including of Nee (for breaching licence conditions) and several other men on suspicion of murder, attempted murder, or assisting an offender, most of whom were later bailed. On 29 September 2022, Thomas Cashman, then 34, was arrested on suspicion of murder, and on 1 October he was charged with murder, two counts of attempted murder, and two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. Paul Russell, 40, was charged with assisting an offender. Cashman was identified after a tip-off from a former partner, who described him arriving at her home in a panicked state shortly after the shooting asking for a change of clothes. Clothing she said she gave him was later recovered hidden in a pram box at his sister's home, bearing his DNA and gunshot residue. She also recalled overhearing Cashman say something to the effect of "I've done Joey" to her partner, Russell. Additional evidence included CCTV showing Cashman conducting apparent reconnaissance of the area beforehand, missing CCTV recorders found disconnected at his home, and two firearms recovered from his address, one of which was linked to a previous shooting targeting Nee two weeks earlier.

Cashman's trial began on 7 March 2023 at Manchester Crown Court before Mrs Justice Amanda Yip. He denied being the gunman while acknowledging he had been in the area as a drug dealer. On 30 March 2023, he was found guilty of Olivia's murder, the wounding of her mother, the attempted murder of Nee, and two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. On 3 April 2023, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 42 years for the murder, with concurrent sentences for the other offences; he will be eligible for parole in 2064. Paul Russell, who had pleaded guilty to assisting an offender by driving Cashman away and disposing of a bag believed to contain clothing, was sentenced to 22 months' imprisonment on 26 April 2023. Cashman was later refused permission to appeal his sentence in July 2023.

The killing prompted public reaction, including statements from then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and then-Home Secretary Priti Patel, as well as tributes from Liverpool F.C. and Everton F.C.