The home of Thomas Cashman was found with its electricity supply "disconnected" and a CCTV recorder "missing", a jury heard today.
The 34-year-old is standing trial at Manchester Crown Court accused of the murder of schoolgirl Olivia Pratt-Korbel at her family home on Kingsheath Avenue, Dovecot, on August 22 last year. Olivia was killed by a bullet that travelled through the front door of the house, through the hand of her mum, Cheryl Korbel, and struck her in the chest.
The gunman had been chasing 36-year-old Joseph Nee, who barged into the Korbel family home while fleeing for his life. Cashman, of Grenadier Drive in West Derby, denies the nine-year-old's murder or any involvement in the shooting that led to it.
READ MORE: Thomas Cashman murder trial resumes as man accused of shooting schoolgirl Olivia Pratt-Korbel
This morning (Thursday) a jury heard evidence on phones attributed to Cashman, and his live-in partner, Kayleeanne Sweeney, as well as searches of their home in Grenadier Drive on The Points estate. Henry Riding, junior counsel for the prosecution, told the jury that when the house was searched on September 14, there was no electricity supply and routers, smoke alarms, CCTV monitors and cables from the rear of TVs in each room had been disconnected.
Detective Constable Craig Doyle, a telecommunications officer at Merseyside Police, was asked about his analysis of the WiFi internet router at the property.
David McLachlan, KC, prosecuting, asked: "Was there one item called XVR, are you able to say when that last connected to the router?”.
DC Doyle replied: “Yes. The data BT provided to the police showed that device last connected with the router on August 25, between 2pm and 4pm.". Mr McLachlan asked what an XVR was.
DC Doyle said: "There’s a company called Dahua technology. One of the products they manage is a CCTV recorder. They produce a number with the product name XVR."
The officer told the jury no digital CCTV recorder was recovered from the property. The jury has previously heard there were "a number of CCTV cameras" installed at the property, but no footage had been obtained.
The jury also heard that six phone numbers were attributed to Cashman by police, but that he did not appear to have an active number between the dates of August 18 and August 24.
Communications engineer and forensic cell-site expert, John Tarpey, was called as a witness and told the jury that several phone numbers, which had been in regular contact with Cashman's phone before it went "out of action" on August 18, began contacting a number attributed to his partner, Miss Sweeney.
However Mr Tarpey said that phone's activity suggested she was still the "principle user" of the phone during that period and that Cashman was an "occasional user".
As well as denying Olivia's murder, Cashman denies the attempted murder of Nee, as well as wounding Cheryl Korbel with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm. He also pleaded not guilty to two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, namely a 9mm calibre self-loading pistol and a 0.3 calibre revolver.
The trial continues.
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