Thomas Cashman will be “eaten alive” in prison for murdering a nine-year-old girl, a former gangster associate has warned.
The killer was sentenced last week to at least 42 years in jail for the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel in her own home in August last year.
Th 34-year-old was chasing career criminal Joseph Nee during a botched assassination attempt when he fired a gun into family's home in Dovecote, Liverpool, before fleeing, reports the Mirror.
Former drug dealer Sam Walker said Cashman "won't last long in prison". Walker said he had some of the same associates as Cashman for over a decade during his criminal career.
Walker said he would be “eaten alive” and his “persona” didn’t bode well for prison life, saying he "cannot fight".
He said: “Anyone can be dangerous with a gun but that’s why he’s f***** in prison. That’s why he was crying in the dock after he got found guilty. What murderer do you know starts crying after they get convicted?
“And the fact that he wouldn’t go up (to the court) to be sentenced. Any proper man wouldn’t have been crying for one.”
Walker revealed Cashman was viewed in Liverpool as a “weirdo, who had no real friends”. Cashman was also said to be known as “the fiddler” because of how "touchy-feely" he was.
Walker also dismissed rumours of a bounty on Cashman’s head, and said it was likely he would end up in the maximum security prison HMP Wakefield.
Olivia's mum Cheryl read out an emotional statement during the trial, where she held onto a teddy bear made out of Olivia's pyjamas, saying “I cannot get my head around how Cashman continued to shoot after hearing the terrifying screams.
“The utter devastation he has caused. He doesn’t care, how could he?”
Following the sentencing, in a second statement made outside of court, Cheryl said that the family’s life sentence had only just started.
The 46-year-old said: "She was my baby, she had amazing qualities and knew what she wanted in life. Everyone adored her. She was the baby of our family … justice has prevailed and I cannot begin to express our relief.
“We welcome the sentence given but what I can say is that my family and I have already started our life sentence having to spend the rest of our lives without Olivia.”
Speaking on behalf of Olivia's heartbroken father, Louise Pratt, her aunt, said that Olivia had “died a scared nine-year-old, and we hope Cashman is haunted by this knowledge for the rest of his life".
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