The conviction of Thomas Cashman for the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel rested largely on fine details.
Olivia was at her family home on Kingsheath Avenue, Dovecot, when 34-year-old Cashman blindly fired a shot through her front door which first struck her mum, Cheryl Korbel, in the wrist before fatally wounding the schoolgirl in the chest.
Cashman had been chasing convicted drug dealer and burglar Joseph Nee, who barged into the Korbel home while fleeing for his life. The ruthless gangland thug, masked up and dressed all in black, then made his escape running and jumping through back gardens to avoid CCTV cameras.
READ MORE: Child killer, hitman, drug dealer - How the dark truth about Thomas Cashman was exposed
The nine-year-old's devastating death on August 22 last year, took monumental efforts to solve. It soon became clear the key to identifying the killer was not in the harrowing, traumatised statements of witnesses at the scene, who other than descriptions of height and build could only tell police about a man in a mask.
In the pressurised, frenetic months that followed, detectives pored over hours of CCTV to track the movements of the key figures in the case. Mobile phone call records and cell site data were painstakingly analysed, thousands of messages were checked and witnesses were carefully questioned.
Gradually, a picture of a murderous mission emerged with one man at its centre - ruthless drug dealer Thomas Cashman. This is the full timeline of what happened on the streets of Dovecot on August 22.
Journey one
2pm: "Intended target" Joseph Nee is recorded driving along Finch Lane and arriving at his friend Timothy Naylor's address on the corner of Finch Lane and Kingsheath Avenue.
3:05pm: Thomas Cashman leaves his home in Grenadier Drive, on the Point Estate in West Derby, wearing a distinctive blue t-shirt. He drives onto Princess Drive, ending up on Finch Lane, and takes a left onto Kingsheath Avenue, where he has a "full view" of Timothy Naylor's house with Nee's white van parked outside.
3:10pm: Cashman enters his sister Coleen Cashman's address on Mab Lane wearing distinctive blue t-shirt and dark pants.
3:17pm: Cashman leaves his sister's house on Mab Lane wearing a dark tracksuit. He drives along Princess Drive and turns right on to Finch Road. He passes the Dovecot Labour Club. This "once again affords him a clear view to his right" of Timothy Naylor's address. Nee's van is still there at the time.
3:33pm: Joseph Nee leaves Finch Lane in his van. At around the same time Cashman returns to his sister's on Mab Lane with a passenger in his van where he sees his friend Ben Russell. Cashman speaks to Ben Russell through the windows of their respective vehicles. He enters the address, but less than two minutes later and he is back out on foot heading in the direction of Snowberry Road. He is out of sight for more than 15 minutes. He reappears as he crosses Snowberry Road onto Rothbury Road.
3:56pm: Cashman is at the junction of Berryford Road and Finch Lane having walked from the Berryford Road direction. He looks in the direction of Mr Naylor's home on Finch Lane. Nee's van is not there. Cashman does an "about-turn" and walks away via Snowberry Road. The prosecution told the jury that this was an aborted mission to shoot Joseph Nee.
4:05pm: Cashman returns to his sister's address on Mab lane.
4:10pm: Cashman leaves his sister's on Mab Lane, now wearing the distinctive blue top from earlier in the afternoon, and gets in the Citroen Berlingo van. He parks up outside another house on Finch Lane, the home of his half brother Kevin Dunn. He is wearing the blue shirt, grey tracksuit pants and black trainers. He is afforded a "good view" of Timothy Naylor's address.
4:13pm: Joseph Nee is recorded on CCTV at Screwfix with Timothy Naylor.
4:45pm: Cashman leaves Kevin Dunn's address on Finch Lane and drives towards Mr Naylor's address, turning left onto Kingsheath Avenue.
5:15pm: Cashman drives past Mr Naylor's address on Finch Lane heading towards Yew Tree Lane.
5:20pm: Cashman arrives home in Grenadier Drive. Over the past two hours, dubbed 'Journey one' by the prosecution, Cashman went past (or had a view of) Mr Naylor's Finch Lane home on six occasions.
Journey Two
6:42pm: Cashman leaves his home in Grenadier Drive: His Berlingo van is observed on East Prescot Road.
7:03pm: Cashman drives onto Finch Road, which "afforded him a clear view" of Mr Naylor's house on Finch Lane. Nee's van is still not there. Cashman then drives a "circuitous route" in the area before ending up outside Kevin Dunn's address opposite Mr Naylor's.
7:09pm: Cashman gets out of his van outside Kevin Dunn's address, wearing grey tracksuit bottoms and grey trainers. He stays in the house for around six minutes before getting back in the van.
7:16pm: Cashman drives along Finch Lane past Dovecot Labour Club and past Timothy Naylor's house. Nee's van is still not there.
7:27pm: Cashman arrives back home at Grenadier Drive. During the course of the past 40 minutes, dubbed Journey Two, Cashman has passed or had a view of Timothy Naylor's address on four separate occasions. Nee's van was not there on any of them.
7:53pm: Joseph Nee's van pulls up outside Timothy Naylor's home in time for Manchester United vs Liverpool, due to kick off at 8pm.
The prosecution claimed from now, Nee was "right where Cashman wanted him to be".
Journey Three
8:04pm: Cashman leaves his home in Grenadier Drive and drives past Mr Naylor's house on Finch Lane. Nee's van was parked outside at this point.
8:12pm: Cashman drives onto Snowberry Road, where he remains for around six minutes.
8:19pm: Cashman's van is back on Finch Lane, travelling in the direction of Kingsheath Avenue. He turns up Berryford Road. Nee's van would have been visible outside Timothy Naylor's house.
8:22pm: Cashman returns home to Grenadier Drive. The prosecution said this is "game on". During Journey three, Cashman passed or had a view of Nee's van on two occasions.
Journey Four
8:30pm: After eight minutes, Cashman again leaves his home on Grenadier Drive in his van, heading towards Finch Lane, before turning right onto Ruscombe Road in the direction of Kingsheath Avenue.
8:35pm: After driving along Kingsheath Avenue, Cashman stops near to the junction with Finch Lane and speaks to two women walking along. Nee's van was visible outside Mr Naylor's house from that point.
8:39pm: Cashman arrives at Kevin Dunn's address on Mab Lane.
8:59pm: Cashman leaves Mab Lane in all black clothing - his "murder clothes" - and drives towards Aspes Road via Princess Drive and Yew Tree Lane. His van pulls up at the side of the road on Aspes Road. This is the last point that Cashman accepted he is the man shown in the footage.
9:00pm: Cashman walks along Finch Lane in the direction of Yew Tree Cemetery.
9:21pm: Cashman walks back along Finch Lane in the direction of Kingsheath Avenue. He is now "lying in wait" for Joseph Nee armed with two guns, the prosecution allege.
The shooting
9:52pm: The Manchester United vs Liverpool match ends. One of the men watching football at Mr Naylor's house on Finch Lane, Paul Abraham, says he is leaving, and Joseph Nee says he will walk down with him.
10pm to 10:11pm: Mr Nee and Mr Abraham are walking along Kingsheath Avenue, on the left hand side of the road. A loud bang rings out, followed by a second. Mr Abraham runs away, but Mr Nee is struck in the midriff by a 9mm bullet and stumbles to the ground. CCTV shows the gunman standing over Mr Nee as he tries to scramble to his feet, and there is a third loud bang. The prosecution case was that the 9mm handgun probably malfunctioned at this point, giving Nee the chance to get to his feet and run towards the Korbel house further along Kingsheath Avenue.
Cheryl Korbel, after hearing loud bangs, steps outside her home. She sees Nee running towards her and rushes back inside, trying to shut the door, which fails because the latch had been left on. Nee barges in shouting "help me". The gunman fires a shot from his second weapon, a 0.3 calibre revolver, which passes through the door.
Behind the door is Cheryl Korbel, who is desperately trying to shut it. Olivia Pratt-Korbel is in bed upstairs. Frightened by the sound of gunshots, she rushes down just as the revolver bullet passes through the door, through the hand of her mum and into her chest. She collapses on the stairs.
The gunman then charges at the house, and manages to put his arm around the door where he fires a second shot with the revolver. This lodges in the door frame and causes no injuries. The gunman then flees the scene in the direction of Finch Lane.
Nee, seriously wounded, is able to make a phone call on his mobile and drag himself out of the Korbel house. He is picked up from where he is lying on the street by five men in a black Audi Q3.
Aftermath
22:11pm: After several 999 calls about gunshots on Kingsheath Avenue, armed response officers PC Daniel Cooper and PC Claire Metcalf arrive on the scene. PC Cooper, realising how badly wounded Olivia is, scoops her up and places her in the back of their patrol car. She is rushed to Alder Hey Children's Hospital. Her mum, Cheryl Korbel, later tells police: "I knew she had gone."
22:17pm: The Audi Q3 pulls up outside the emergency department of Whiston Hospital. CCTV shows the men inside carry a seemingly unconscious Joseph Nee to hospital entrance.
22:35pm: After receiving treatment at the scene from paramedics, Cheryl Korbel is taken by ambulance to Aintree Hospital.
23:24pm: Despite extensive attempts to save her, Olivia is declared dead by medics at Alder Hey Children's Hospital.
READ NEXT:
Everything heard during the first week of Olivia Pratt-Korbel murder trial
What the jury heard during week two of Olivia Pratt-Korbel murder trial
What happened during the third week of the Olivia Pratt-Korbel murder trial
