Hundreds of people have gathered in Liverpool to pay their respects at the funeral nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, a girl “loved and adored by everyone”, who was shot dead in her own home.
Family, friends and many members of the community wore black and various shades of pink – Olivia’s favourite colour – as they paid tribute to Olivia, who was killed when a masked gunman burst into her home in the Dovecot area of Liverpool on 22 August.
Outside St Margaret Mary’s Catholic church, next door to Olivia’s school in Knotty Ash, the crowd fell silent shortly before 11am as the funeral procession arrived, led by a hearse containing flowers spelling the words “Liv” and “daughter”. Olivia’s white coffin, which was decorated with a rainbow and pink butterflies, arrived at the church in a white, horse-drawn carriage.
The priests, also wearing black and pink, blessed the coffin as it was carried inside by four pallbearers to the hymn Walk With Me, Oh My Lord, a song asking for God’s help in times of difficulty.
Olivia’s classmates were not present but instead remembered her at school, including writing prayers and working on an art project of flowers. They watched Olivia’s favourite film, Matilda, and painted their nails pink in her memory. The 480 pupils have been offered counselling to help cope with the loss, the headteacher, Rebecca Wilkinson, said.
Olivia’s mother, Cheryl Korbel, told the mourners Olivia loved to sing and dance, and she “would have made a great lawyer because she had an answer for everything”.
“There were many times she would amaze me with the answers she would give back and I’d have to remind her how old she was. This was often when we would see her sassy, diva side.
“Our Liv loved to clacktale [tell] on other people. She was very quick to tell you if they had done something wrong. People would often be saying to her ‘snitches get stitches’ but she would never tell you if she had done something wrong.
“Liv would come home from school and tell me all about the other children in the class playing up and I’d remind her that she should give the teachers a chance to do their job and not do it for them.”
She ended the eulogy by saying to Olivia: “Goodnight, love you, see you in the morning.”
The service was also broadcast over a PA system outside the church to the dozens of people who could not fit inside. It was to be followed by a private burial and wake.
The archbishop of Liverpool, Malcolm McMahon, told the gathered community: “The loss of a child is a parent’s worst nightmare – nothing can compare with the sense of desolation and the depths of grief which you experience, and little can be done to alleviate the pain which you as a family must feel, which is shared by neighbours, friends and the school and parish community of St Margaret Mary’s – and indeed all the good people of Liverpool.
“So, I am aware of how empty words can seem on an occasion like this but I do want to express my deepest condolences and sympathy to Olivia’s mother, father, brother and sister. The words I offer you are also words of consolation and hope.”
Liverpool was shaken by the shooting, which police said “crossed every boundary”. Nine men have been arrested but none of them have been charged.
Merseyside police are still looking for two guns used in the murder, and on Monday searched land at a local golf course.
Earlier this month, the Guardian reported that gun crime has risen in two-thirds of police force areas in England and Wales in the last decade, despite a fall of 14% nationally.
