In the mind of Thomas Cashman, Joseph Nee was supposed to die on the night of August 22 last year.
Before things went so horrifically wrong and nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel ended up in the firing line instead, Cashman’s grim mission was so very nearly completed successfully. As he stood over Nee, who was begging “please lad, don’t”, his 9mm Glock self-loading pistol seemingly jammed, giving the wounded 35-year-old chance to scramble to his feet and flee.
What is now clear is that Cashman was not the first man to have the same idea.
READ MORE: Child killer, hitman, drug dealer - How the dark truth about Thomas Cashman was exposed
In some ways, Nee, “a man with his enemies”, might consider himself unlucky. Who would want to be known as the man who, inadvertently, brought death and devastation to the Korbel family’s door? In other ways he is astonishingly fortunate. On three occasions, including August 22, someone has opened fire on the convicted burglar.
Nee was shot at in March, 2018, by an unknown assailant. On August 8, two weeks before Olivia’s death, a gunman fired at him using the same Glock he was shot with on the night of the 22nd. Merseyside Police say they have not ruled Cashman out of being the shooter on that occasion, although he has not been charged.
As a younger man, Nee was involved in a notorious criminal group that flooded the streets of Kensington with crack and heroin. According to ECHO reports from 2009, Nee was a “trusted foot-soldier” in an organisation that was “dripping in materialism”, spending the money on luxury flats, plasma screen TVs, high-end cars and wardrobes full of designer gear.
The gang was led by known hardman Brian “Big Show” Siner, who received a 14 year sentence at Liverpool Crown Court.
Nee, then 23, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for drug supply offences. He was jailed for a year in 2011 for perverting the course of justice in relation to a gang of violent burglars, including his brother, Jason Nee, which threatened victims in their own home with weapons.
In 2018, Nee was jailed again for 45 months for burglary and dangerous driving, after leading Cheshire Police on a high speed chase. It is fair to say Nee’s lifestyle won him few friends.
One source who lives in Dovecot and is familiar with both Cashman and Nee told the ECHO locals considered Nee: “The scum of the Earth, he used to burgle houses.”
In what may have been confusing for the jury of 10 men and two women at Manchester Crown Court, where Cashman stood trial this month, they did not hear any evidence from Joseph Nee about being shot on August 22.
Nor did the jury hear any evidence of what motivated Cashman to take out his fellow drug dealer. Indeed, Merseyside Police say while they have received intelligence any theory would be “speculation”, and, in the words of Detective Superintendent Mark Baker, “we may never know” for sure.
Cashman himself tried to claim he was "friends" with the Nee family. He told the jury: "No, I never had problems with the Nee family ever."
What is not in dispute, however, is Nee’s propensity for making dangerous enemies. The jury was told “he had his enemies”, and as Professor John Cooper, KC, defending Cashman, said in his closing speech “there were others who wanted him dead”.
But more came out in the absence of the jury. Mr Cooper submitted an application to the court to admit information from Merseyside Police intelligence logs as evidence.
He also applied for sections of Nee’s statement to be admitted, without Nee being called as a witness.
We heard that police were told Nee was considered “a rat” who “generally made enemies”. We also heard of a “feud” between the Nee family and the Hickman family, which contains several hardened criminals who are serving or who have served long prison sentences.
In a ruling delivered on the application, we heard how: “Material further supporting a feud between the Hickmans and the Nees, including details of a fight between Paul Hickman and Jason Nee (Joseph’s brother) in prison and a so-called straightener between Joseph Nee and Lee Hickman in a public house.”
The thrust of Mr Cooper’s application was to suggest that there were alternative suspects in the mix for Oliva’s killing, and he suggested to trial judge Mrs Justice Yip the defence should be able to argue that the police had prematurely “closed their minds” to the possibility of others being the gunman.
But as Justice Yip ruled, the reality was that those names had been thoroughly checked out and their alibis held up to scrutiny.
Lee Hickman, who was at one stage arrested on suspicion of Olivia’s murder at a flat in Huyton, provided an alibi in his interview which was corroborated by CCTV and phone evidence.
Paul Hickman and Roy Hickman, the judge noted, were in prison at the time of the murder. Anthony Hickman, another brother, was revealed by CCTV footage and phone evidence to have been in a pub at the time of the shooting.
Justice Yip noted: “The defence argue that none of this excludes the Hickmans being involved otherwise than as the gunman.
“While that may be so, the issue for the jury is whether the defendant was the shooter. Evidence that others might have been involved in some other way does not assist his defence.”
Nee himself told police he did not know who shot him. He did mention his “little argument” with Lee Hickman and spoke of others he had fallen out with, at one stage saying “it could have been anyone”.
But Justice Yip ruled: “Mr Nee has given varying accounts at different times. At no stage has he positively asserted that he knows who shot him….The statements made by Joseph Nee about the possible involvement of others are vague and speculative. They do not provide any evidence that someone other than the defendant was the gunman.
“In the circumstances, the evidence of things said by Joseph Nee does not have any real probative value.”
In his 35-years Nee has served long stretches in prison, been the target of at least three assassination or wounding attempts involving guns, and has a lamentable reputation in his community.
The real tragedy, is that Olivia had to pay the price for the enemies he made.
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