Olivia Pratt-Korbel, 9, was carried from house in blood-stained pyjamas after being shot in bungled hit, court hears
OLIVIA Pratt-Korbel was carried out of her house wearing blood-stained pyjamas after she was shot in a bungled gangland hit, a court heard today.
A bullet hit the nine-year-old in the chest at her home in Dovecot, Liverpool, just after 10pm in August last year.
Two horrified witnesses described the moment cops rushed the youngster from the property and into a vehicle to go to hospital, where she died about an hour later.
In a police interview on August 24, which was read out in court, Libby Boylan said: “I saw officers run into the address.
“One came out carrying a little girl in his arms.
“I could clearly see her pyjamas were bloodstained.”
Ms Boylan had been on her way home from her grandfather’s house where she had eaten a takeaway when the gunman opened fire.
Her mum Lisa Boylan, who was also in the car, added: “There were lots of people in the street and that front garden.
“I saw a female child with blonde hair being carried out by police officers.
“She wore a white nightie which had a lot of blood over it.
“She appeared floppy. I knew immediately the little girl had been shot.”
Thomas Cashman is charged with murdering the schoolgirl on the night of August 22 when he had intended to kill convicted burglar Joseph Nee.
Olivia had been frightened out of bed and ran to her mother after hearing a commotion outside their house on Kingsheath Avenue, the trial heard.
Her mum Cheryl opened the front door to find out what was going on when Nee, bleeding and injured, saw the light from her doorway and ran towards the house, trying to barge in to escape Cashman.
Cheryl, “in a panic” and yelling at Nee banging on the door, tried to shut it on him, as Cashman pursued his target and fired with a revolver.
The bullet missed Nee, went through the front door, through Cheryl’s right hand and hit Olivia in the centre of her chest.
The mum begged her stricken daughter to “stay with me, baby” as Nee slumped on the hallway floor.
A neighbour told police she was in bed when she heard two bangs outside, then two “muffled bangs” followed by “the worst screaming I’ve ever heard in my life”.
She then heard Olivia’s sister Chloe on the phone saying: “Where are they, where are they? She is dying.”
Another woman, Olivia Heffrom, who had been staying at her partner’s house on the street, said she could bear “hysterical screaming” from a woman who was “in a constant state of panic”.
She added: “I have never seen someone in such distress before.”
Armed police arrived at 10.11pm and Olivia was rushed to hospital where she sadly died.
Nee had stumbled out of the house, collapsed in the middle of the road and used his mobile phone, Manchester Crown Court heard.
He was picked up by five men in a black car before police arrived, while Cashman allegedly fled the scene.
Prosecutors say the defendant had planned the “execution” of Nee but had instead shot a nine-year-old girl.
Cashman denies the murder of Olivia, the attempted murder of Nee, wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm to Olivia’s mother, and two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
The trial, expected to last four weeks, continues.