* The Liverpool ECHO's Crime Reporter, Jonathan Humphries, and Court Reporter, Adam Everett, sat down for an exclusive, hard-hitting interview with Detective Superintendent Mark Baker and Detective Chief Inspector Jude Blease about the Olivia Pratt-Korbel investigation. Here is a preview, and full, extended footage of the fascinating discussion will be released in the coming days.
Child killing gangland thug Thomas Cashman tried to intimidate the community of Dovecot into silence after his initial arrest for the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel, detectives believe.
The 34-year-old has just begun serving a life sentence with a minimum of 42 years in prison after being convicted of Olivia's murder at Manchester Crown Court. The jury heard how Cashman lay in wait for convicted drug dealer Joseph Nee on Kingsheath Avenue, Dovecot, on the evening of August 22 last year.
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At around 10pm Cashman opened fire on Nee with a Glock self-loading pistol and shot him three times, but was foiled in his execution attempt when the gun "malfunctioned". However Cashman had brought a back-up weapon, a revolver, and pursued Nee as he ran for his life.
Tragically, Nee barged into the home of Olivia's mum, Cheryl Korbel, in a desperate bid to escape after she stepped outside to see what was going on. Cashman, despite knowing Cheryl was in harm's way, blindly fired a shot through the front door, hitting Cheryl in the wrist and Olivia in the chest.
Detective Superintendent Mark Baker and Detective Chief Inspector Jude Blease led the investigation for Merseyside Police, and sat down with the ECHO for an exclusive interview about the case. During the interview, DS Baker shared an insight into how the people he and his team spoke to in the community felt about Cashman and some of the obstacles they fear he put in the way of the work of police.
Cashman was first arrested on suspicion of Olivia's murder on September 4, his birthday, but at that stage the investigation team did not have the full evidence needed to charge him and had to take the difficult decision to release him on bail. He was re-arrested in October.
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'."
The ECHO asked if the detectives had seen evidence that Cashman was feared in area.
DCI Blease said: "I would say so yes, 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."
After Cashman was found guilty it emerged he had been suspected of involvement in the unsolved murder of Karl Bradley in West Derby in 2013. The ECHO reported how Cashman had in fact been arrested on suspicion of that murder three years later, although he was never charged.
The ECHO asked if widespread rumours of Cashman's involvement in previous offences presented difficulties for the team.
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."
However, witnesses did find the courage to speak and one in particular, a woman who had a sexual relationship with Cashman and cannot be named for legal reasons, provided critical evidence of him admitting "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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