Thug who helped Thomas Cashman cover up Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s murder given new ID – sparking family outrage
OLIVIA Pratt-Korbel’s family stormed out of court today as a thug who helped her killer cover his tracks was handed a new identity.
Paul Russell, 41, helped Thomas Cashman get rid of clothes he wore during the horror shooting in Liverpool.
It came moments after nine-year-old Olivia was blasted in the chest after being caught in the cross-fire of a deadly gang war.
Russell has now been jailed for 22 months after he pleaded guilty to assisting an offender – although he will be freed in six months due to time spent on remand.
Olivia’s family including mum Cheryl wept during the hearing at Liverpool Crown Court today.
Her brother Ryan stormed out of court as it was revealed Russell would be given a new identity.
His lawyer Tom Schofield said the associate would be “looking over his shoulder for years to come”.
It came as Olivia’s dad John Francis Pratt yelled “so what” as the court was told Russell’s prison time has been “particularly isolating” due to a threat made against his safety.
Prosecutors have accepted “terrified” Russell was “unaware of true horror” of Cashman’s crimes when he helped him.
Cashman had “garden hopped” to Russell’s partner’s home in the wake of the bloodbath and told her he had “done Joey” in reference to intended hit Joseph Nee.
She was a former lover of Cashman’s and was a key prosecution witness in his trial.
The woman called Russell, who admitted his “heart sank because he knew Cashman’s reputation” and was “afraid” of him.
He said: “When she phoned me, my heart. My world just fell apart.
“I didn’t like him anyway…I didn’t wanna see him to be fair, devastated.”
After Russell arrived, the killer told him he had “been involved in an incident involving a chase and a shooting” but “did not elaborate”.
He replied “lad, don’t wanna hear it, don’t tell me nothing” before driving Cashman to his Citroen Berlingo van.
This was despite knowing his shameless actions “might impede his apprehension by the police”.
Russell later took Cashman’s clothes round to another associate – although the Under Armour top and tracksuit bottoms he gave the killer later proved pivotal in catching him.
The clothing was found to contain two particles of gunpower residue and a speck of Cashman’s blood.
In a police interview, Russell “admitted all he had done” after meeting with a detective to name Cashman as the man responsible for Olivia’s murder.
He also denied being the killer’s “mate” and told officers he was “terrified” of the high-level drug dealer.
Russell claimed Cashman had driven past his home the day after the shooting and threatened: “Don’t say nothing.”
The serial offender has 13 previous convictions for 16 offences between 1998 and 2011.
Mitigating, Russell’s lawyer Tom Schofield said: “The defendant is the epitome of remorse for what he did.
“His involvement in the events of August 22, however substantial or peripheral, will be a source of shame until the day he dies.
“He will never live them down.”
Cashman was this month jailed for life with a minimum of 42 years for the “particularly grave” and “chilling” killing.
The horror unfolded on August 22 last year in a “pre-planned and ruthless attack” that “went horribly wrong”.
Armed with a pistol and revolver, Cashman “lay in wait” for Nee, 35, to leave a friend’s home where he had been watching the Utd v Liverpool game.
The convicted burglar was shot at on the street before he barged his way into Olivia’s home injured and covered in blood.
Cashman then fired two shots into the house as Olivia “strayed into line of fire'” while “seeking comfort” from her mum Cheryl.
Cheryl told how her daughter “went all floppy” and her eyes went to the back of her head before she said something like sounded like “mum”.
The mum-of-three said she yelled out at her son Ryan to help get Olivia up the stairs as she was trying to stem the blood coming from her own wound.
It was then Cheryl realised the youngster had been hit in the middle of the chest as she desperately “gasped for breath”.
Cheryl’s heartbreaking evidence reduced the courtroom to tears as she told police: “There was just screaming. I heard the gunshot. I realised, because it hit my hand.
“I heard the baby screaming and that’s when I turned round and spotted her sitting at the bottom of the stairs.
“I just huddled over her. I lifted her top. That’s when I realised she’d been shot in the chest.”
As her little girl slipped away in her arms, Cheryl shouted out : “Please Liv, stay with me.”
Sobbing in her police interview, she told officers a neighbour came in to start performing CPR but she “knew she’d gone”.
Tragically, Olivia couldn’t be saved and died in hospital later that night.
Cashman meanwhile was captured on CCTV fleeing the scene as medics battled to save Olivia.
Dramatic bodycam footage later showed Cashman telling cops “you’re stitching me up” as he was arrested.
The brute continued his shameless lies in court where he wept as he claimed he wasn’t behind the brutal killing.
He has now launched a bid to cut his sentence, while the Attorney General’s Office has received a request asking for the prison term to be considered too lenient.
Senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent Mark Baker said: “The nation was rightly horrified by the murder of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel as a consequence of the reckless actions of Thomas Cashman on that night.
“Assisting someone to escape justice when they have committed any crime is to be condemned but particularly so when an innocent child is the victim.
“Thankfully Russell saw fit to hand himself in when he realised the enormity of what Cashman had done and that Olivia had been killed. His guilty plea at least saves Olivia’s family the agony of sitting through another trial and having once again to relive that horrific night.
“Cashman will spend at least 42 years behind bars after being convicted of Olivia’s murder. As a consequence of what he did Russell will now also spend a period of time behind bars where I hope that he will be able to reflect on his actions on that night.”