Olivia Pratt-Korbel's killer Thomas Cashman had attempted to assassinate Joseph Nee just hours before his botched hit failed and he shot dead the innocent nine-year-old schoolgirl instead. The convict was targeting Nee when little Olivia was struck and killed in her home on Kingsheath Avenue in Dovecot on August 22 last year.
Cashman's initial plot was foiled when his intended victim had unexpectedly gone to Screwfix instead. Manchester Crown Square Court heard the 34-year-old gunman had spent the majority of his day patrolling the area nearby Finch Lane, the ECHO reports.
He had spotted Nee's Volkswagen Transporter van parked up on a street in the early afternoon outside the home of a man called Timothy Naylor where he would later watch the Liverpool v Manchester United match on TV. The two men went to Aintree Retail Park and shopped in Currys and American Golf before getting food from Subway and returning to Finch Lane where Nee helped Mr Naylor set up a TV he had purchased.
