A murdering gangland thug attempted to intimidate witnesses after he was initially arrested for the death of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, according to detectives.
Thomas Cashman is now serving the first stretch of a life sentence of at least 42 years after he was convicted for Olivia's murder at Manchester Crown Court. A jury heard how Cashman had laid in wait for convicted drug dealer Joseph Nee on Kingsheath Avenue, Dovecot, on August 22 last year.
At around 10pm, the 34-year-old, open-fired on Nee with a Glock self-loading pistol, shooting him three times. However, Cashman's gun 'malfunctioned' which led to him using a back-up revolver, leading to a pursuit as Nee ran for his life.
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During his flee, Nee barged into Cheryl Korbel's home after she stepped outside to check the commotion. Cashman then blindly fired a shot through the foor, hitting Cheryl in the wrist and her daughter Olivia in the chest.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, Detective Superintendent Mark Baker and Detective Chief Insepctor Jude Blease, who led the investigation for Merseyside Police, described how the community felt about Cashman and his attempts to hinder police work. On September 4, Cashman was arrested, however, the investigation team lacked the full evidence to charge him and had to release him on bail.
DS Baker said: "There were elements of the community who were saying he gets away with things, and you'll have difficulty charging him. I attended a community meeting the night before we arrested him for the second time and people there were telling us he had been riding around Dovecot the day of the Queen's funeral on a pedal cycle.
"Now, that was quite important really, because from an investigation point of view we thought he was trying to intimidate potential witnesses by doing that, it was telling people in the community he was still here, and he was still out and about, and people that were considering coming forwards to support the police may well have thought; 'I'll think about that, I'm not so sure now whether I want to'.
"So we were saying to the Crown Prosecution Service we believe, if we're able to charge him, there are other members of the community that will trust us further. And that did happen, we went back to them and said 'listen, he's in custody, he's out of the area, he's been charged, and he'll stand trial, now we want further evidence from yourselves'."
When asked if the detectives had seen evidence that Cashman was known and feared in the area, DCI Blease said: "I would say so yes...". He added "... and I think the whole investigation team would agree with that. I think he had the community probably, almost eating out of his hand. You know, sort of what he said went.
Addressing rumours of Cashman's involvement in previous offences and its effect on the investigation team's work, DCI Blease said: "I think there's always going to be that isn't there with anybody if you're fearful that somebody else has been responsible for something, and then they've gotten away with it, and all of a sudden they're now believed to be responsible for that, it's always going to stop people from ever speaking to us.
"What I will say with all of our murders that are unsolved we have a serious case review team. They go through any pieces of information any pieces of intelligence that come through they will look at, if they feel there are viable lines of enquiry."
Despite Cashman's attempt to silence the community, one witness spoke out, a woman who had a sexual relationship with Cashman who cannot be named for legal reasons. The woman admitted "I've done Joey" in her home shortly after the shooting.
DCI Blease said: "One of the things that always sticks out in my mind is how she described him when he went round to the house. Pulling at his hair, almost in that frantic moment knowing that something's gone wrong. She did the right thing, she was very, very brave and came forward.
"That allowed us to get to the position of charge, and then as Mr Baker says, you could see the community tensions, that feel of 'actually, we've managed to get something back here. We've got some control back'. And other people were willing to come forward then, and that's exactly what we needed."
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