Rishi Sunak said the killing of Olivia Pratt-Korbel 'brought home' the dangers faced by children.
The Prime Minister spoke about how he wants to see more people jailed in a crackdown on crime, after revealing he fears for his own children's safety. Mr Sunak said he wanted to curb crime so that “my kids and everyone else can walk around safely”.
He told reporters: "We should charge more people and reduce crime and have them in jail.” He said he remained “committed” to the Tory manifesto promise to put 20,000 more police officers on the street, and that doing so to reduce neighbourhood crime “is incredibly important to me”.
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The PM added: “If you put more police officers on the street and you tackle more crime, you’re going to end up with more people in jail. Which is why we’re building 10,000 more prison places over the next few years.”
Asked if he was comfortable with prisoner numbers going up, the Prime Minister said: “Well we’re not very comfortable with it but I’ve made sure that we have the funding in place to have the capacity to do it.”
Combating crime is “personally quite important to me,” Mr Sunak said. He added: “I come to it as a parent. I have two young girls”
His eldest wanted to walk to her primary school by herself when she turned 11, he said, adding that this was the reason his family moved out of their Downing Street flat and closer to her school in west London in the spring before he resigned as chancellor.
The Prime Minister said: “That brings it home. It brings it home to you as a parent and again over the summer the awful things that we read about with the young girl Olivia (Pratt-Korbel), which we’ll all remember. I want to make sure that my kids and everyone else can walk around safely.
“That’s what any parent wants for their children. It’s what anyone wants for their – particularly their wife or their sister as well – because that hasn’t been something that in the past – well in the past I’ve taken it for granted, and many of us as men have.
“The events of the last year showed us that so many women and girls actually for a while have not felt as safe as they should. “So tackling that and making it safer for people is something that’s just personally quite important to me.”
Nine-year-old Olivia was fatally shot in the chest with a .38 caliber revolver inside her own home on Kingsheath Avenue, Dovecot at around 10pm on Monday, August 22. The schoolgirl's mum Cheryl Korbel, 46, was injured as a gunman chased convicted criminal Joseph Nee into their home.
Thomas Cashman was charged with the murder of Olivia, the attempted murder of Ms Korbel and Mr Nee, and two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. The 34-year-old, of Grenadier Drive in West Derby, first appeared in court on October 3. He was not asked to enter a plea - and a four-week trial was set for March 6 next year.
Paul Russell, of Snowberry Road in West Derby, was charged with assisting an offender in relation to Olivia's murder. The 40-year-old is accused of driving Cashman to an address and disposing of his clothing.
Mr Sunak said he was spending “a bit of time” on making sure the police have the powers they need to do their job. He was “very supportive” of the controversial Public Order Bill aimed at tackling “some of the extremist protesting we’ve been seeing”.
The Bill, currently going through Parliament, has sparked a backlash from campaigners. Mr Sunak said he viewed reducing crime as “part of levelling up”, as it most impacts people in parts of the country who have felt overlooked or who are from disadvantaged backgrounds.
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