A police officer tried to save the life of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel by using his hand to cover her gunshot wound as he carried her into hospital, an inquest heard on Tuesday.
André Rebello, the senior coroner for Liverpool who presided over the death of 11-year-old Rhys Jones after he was shot in the city in August 2007, spoke of his shock that “society has not changed for the better” as he opened the inquest into the fatal shooting of another child in Merseyside.
Olivia was shot dead after a stranger, 35-year-old Joseph Nee, burst into her home while fleeing a shooter. The victim’s mother, Cheryl, sustained a gunshot wound to the wrist while trying to stop them from entering. Nee was shot in the leg and torso and survived the attack.
The hearing was told Merseyside police officers “scooped and ran” with Olivia after they were called to the incident in Dovecot at about 10pm on 22 August.
Rebello said: “Armed response officers attended and a nine-year-old child, Olivia Pratt-Korbel, was discovered with a gunshot wound to her chest. Police officers scooped and ran with Olivia to Alder Hey Children’s hospital in the back of a police car.
“At approximately 10.15pm she was brought into the main entrance in the arms of a police officer. The officer had covered the wound to her chest with his hand and she was noted to have a weak heart, which had stopped prior to her arrival in hospital.”
He said medical teams met Olivia as she arrived at the hospital and a major trauma call was put out. Cardiac massage and a rapid blood transfusion were given to the schoolgirl at the hospital but at 11.15pm she had no cardiac output, the coroner said.
Rebello told the hearing at Gerard Majella Courthouse: “At 11.25pm, after extensive efforts by all involved, the decision was made to stop resuscitation and Olivia was confirmed as having died.
“I understand there’s a live homicide investigation and though there have been several arrests nobody stands charged with murder.”
The coroner added: “Fifteen years ago I was the coroner in Liverpool and the death of Rhys was reported to me. It is quite shocking that society has not changed for the better.
“It is shocking that a nine-year-old little girl, with a full life in front of her, is shot anywhere, but to be shot in her own home, in the safety of her home, is heinous and unforgiving.
“There must be people in Liverpool, or elsewhere by now, who know precisely by what means Olivia died and who was responsible for her death. Olivia’s death will not just affect her immediate family and friends but also school communities, church communities, not just in the Knotty Ash and Dovecot areas of Liverpool but the whole city, Merseyside, and I know right across this country people are shocked by Olivia’s death.”
The inquest heard that a postmortem examination found her medical cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest. He released the body to the family for burial and adjourned the inquest to 4 January.
A 36-year-old man from Huyton and a 33-year-old from Dovecot were arrested by armed police on suspicion of murder and two counts of attempted murder in relation to Olivia’s death last week and have been released on bail.
