Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s mum ‘knew she’d gone’ after ‘fatal gunshot’
Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s mum sobbed ‘she’s gone’ the moment she realised her nine-year-old daughter had been shot.
The trial of Thomas Cashman, 34, accused of shooting dead Olivia last August and injuring her mum Cheryl Korbel, 46, and Joseph Nee, 36, has entered its third day.
A jury at Manchester Crown Court was played police interviews conducted with members of the family and neighbours.
Olivia’s mum Cheryl told officers: ‘I was just screaming, Liv, please stay with me.’
She said how her daughter then fell unconscious and Cheryl turned to a family member to say ‘she’s gone’.
The mum recalled how ‘blood was spurting everywhere’ the moment Olivia was shot and as the bullet passed through her own wrist.
It was then she realised the nine-year-old had been stood behind her when she opened the door.
Cheryl had turned around and her daughter was sitting ‘still’ on the bottom step of the stairs.
‘I was huddled over the baby because I couldn’t lift her by myself because of the arm. I was trying to keep the blood from going everywhere,’ Cheryl said in her police interview.
At this moment, the court heard how Olivia was ‘gasping for breath and I was screaming at her to stay with me’.
A neighbour of Cheryl’s recalled how she heard ‘the worst screaming in my life’ the moment the shooting happened.
Neighbour Adele Maher told the court she knew ‘something terrible had happened’.
Her and husband David Maher were were lying in bed when both heard bangs and witnessed one man chasing another, describing their clothing to the court.
The man being chased ‘was in my view for about a second’, said Mrs Maher. The gunman was in her sight for a similar time, but she says he wore ‘all black from head to toe’.
She said her bedroom overlooks the road but she had her blind up which made it hard for her to see the details.
But she recalled to police having heard ‘the worst screaming I have ever heard in my life’.
She continued: ‘I think it was women screaming, hysterical, out of control.’
Adele said the family were too terrified to go outside once police arrived at the scene.
David turned to his wife after hearing the first bangs and said, ‘that’s not right’.
‘The screaming was terrible. People were distraught,’ he said.
The jury also heard how the intended target of the shooting, Nee, shouted ‘please don’t’ as his friend ran ‘for his life’ away from the gunman.
They were shown a police interview with Paul Abraham, who was with Nee when the gunman fired shots.
He said: ‘Both of us ran. One must have got Joey.
‘He fell over. I don’t even know when he got shot, he just fell.
‘As he rolled over I just basically jumped over him and went through a gate.’
Mr Abraham saw Nee running up the street and the attacker with two hands on what appeared to be a gun.
He said: ‘As I was going up the entry he (Nee) was saying “please don’t”, I heard him shouting “please, don’t”.’
Mr Abraham said he thought he then heard two more bangs when he jumped over fences in back gardens to get away.
‘I was just running for my life basically,’ he said.
Mr Abraham did not initially tell police during interviews whose house him and Nee had been at that evening.
He said: ‘It’s not down to me this, I don’t want to get myself into trouble either.’
He then told the court how he and Nee were watching a football match between Manchester United and Liverpool at the house of friend Timothy Naylor.
In a joint statement, Mr Naylor confirmed: ‘I had no idea Joey was at risk, if I had thought Joey was under threat or his life was at risk I’d never ever have him near my house.’
Mr Naylor also recalled how he heard bangs and a male screaming shortly after Nee and Mr Abraham left the house.
Mr Naylor said: ‘I rang Paul after hearing the bangs.
‘Paul was hysterical, sobbing on the phone and he couldn’t get his words out.
‘I knew something bad must have happened to him or Joey.’
The jury has been told after Nee was shot he ran towards the Korbel family home and was chased by his attacker, who fired through the front door.
The bullet then hit Ms Korbel in the hand and fatally wounded Olivia in the chest.
Cashman, of Grenadier Drive, Liverpool, denies the murder of Olivia, the attempted murder of Joseph Nee, wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm to Olivia’s mum, and two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
The trial continues.
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