Thomas Cashman said "I've done Joey" in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Olivia Pratt-Korbel, a court has heard.
The 34-year-old, of Grenadier Drive in West Derby, is currently standing trial charged with the nine-year-old's murder after she was shot dead inside her own home on Kingsheath Avenue in Dovecot. A bullet fired by a gunman who was allegedly "relentless pursuing" a man called Joseph Nee - described as "the real target" - travelled through the front door of the house, hit her mum Cheryl in the hand then struck the schoolgirl in the chest on the evening of August 22 last year.
A jury at Manchester Crown Square Crown Court was told during the prosecution's opening today, Tuesday, that Cashman continued to the address of a woman he had previously had a sexual relationship with following the shooting. She cannot be identified for legal reasons but David McLachlan KC, prosecuting, described how she later told police that she had "dozed off" at around 9pm that night before being woken by the defendant in her house.
READ MORE: Thomas Cashman trial updates as jury told of moment mum realised Olivia Pratt-Korbel had been shot
The woman stated: "I remember just being asleep and obviously being tapped on the leg a good couple of times - 'it’s Tommy, it’s Tommy', in me room. I could just see him with his hands in his head, in his hair."
Cashman was said to have told her to "get him a pair of pants", adding: "I didn’t know where else to go. I trust you."
He was described as "stuttering and saying something like someone was coming for him", having apparently been told that people were "sitting him off, like observing him". The woman then phoned a man called Paul Russell against Cashman's wishes.
After he too arrived, she heard the name "Joey Nee" being mentioned when the two men were talking. She first heard of the news about Olivia's death the following morning.
The woman said of this: "I broke down, like I physically can’t. I can’t like keep this away, I can’t.
"I physically couldn’t, I just couldn’t do it. Basically I couldn’t protect him."
She added of her reasons for coming forward: "I don’t want her to not have them answers. It’s her little girl, at the end of the day."
The woman said "she could not understand why he went to her house and, in essence, destroyed her life", adding: "I’m really hurt by him because, honestly, I seen him as a good friend to me. I don’t give a s*** about the relationship right because half the time that relationship, it wasn’t a f***ing affair like people may think - it was three times."
When she asked Cashman where he had been upon his arrival, he was said to have responded that "he went to drop the bits off before he came to my house". When Russell arrived, he was heard to say: "Lad, don’t wanna hear it, don’t tell me nothing."
Cashman was said to have told him at the front door "I've done Joey". He was given a change of clothing before leaving with Russell.
The woman added: "I was devastated, the fact that that piece of s*** never took them clothes with him when he got dropped off. I was really surprised why he left them clothes there.
"He’s jeopardised everyone else’s life just to save his own back. Do you know what I mean?
"I’m losing everything me now, just because of what he’s done that night. It’s done me head in.
"I just wish he would have took them clothes himself that night and done his job himself - he’d already done what he’d done so why the f*** couldn’t he finish it off, do you know what I mean? Yeah, really done me head in."
The woman said she later "managed to put the pieces together" when she saw a newspaper article which referred to Nee in relation to the shooting, at which stage she "realised who he was and how it was connected to events" of August 22. She was also asked about a message she had sent to a neighbour a month before - in which she said of Cashman "it was time to ruin him like he has done to me" - saying of this that she "wanted to tell his girlfriend what he was up to by setting up a false social media account", but did not do so.
It came after he had also allegedly had a relationship with “his girlfriend’s best mate”. Mr McLachlan told jurors: "In other words, she realised he had been carrying on with somebody else - she wanted to do something about it, but she never did.
"In short, she puts Thomas Cashman in her house after the shooting at Kingsheath Avenue - a shooting that had not gone well, and Thomas Cashman had sought refuge in the home of someone whom he thought he could trust. By doing so, he brought a whole world of pain to her door."
Mr McLachlan pointed to the dock as he said: “Thomas Cashman denies being the gunman. Thomas Cashman therefore denies going to her house.
"He denies he went there on that night. You will decide whether he went on that night, and if so why he went."
Cashman denies murdering Olivia, the attempted murder of Nee, wounding with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm against Cheryl Korbel and two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. The trial continues.
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