The trial of Thomas Cashman, the man accused of murdering nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel in Liverpool last August, is to begin on Monday.
Cashman, 34, is due to stand trial for murder at Manchester crown court in a case that is expected to last four weeks, after he pleaded not guilty in December.
Olivia was shot dead on 22 August 2022 after a stranger, 35-year-old Joseph Nee, burst into her home on Kingsheath Avenue in Dovecot while fleeing a gunman, alleged to be Cashman.
Olivia’s mother, Cheryl, sustained a gunshot wound to the wrist while trying to stop the gunman from entering. Nee, a convicted burglar, was shot in the leg and torso. Both adults survived the attack, which police at the time said crossed “every boundary”, and Nee was later recalled to prison for breaching the terms of his release.
Cashman, of Grenadier Drive in West Derby, faces four other charges, for the attempted murder of Nee, believed to be the target of the attack, wounding with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm on Cheryl Korbel, and two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, relating to a 9mm calibre self-loading pistol and a revolver.
The trial is being held in Manchester, where the judge, Mrs Justice Yip, remanded Cashman in custody after a pre-trial hearing in February.
Olivia’s family, who were present during the short hearing, previously paid tribute to the “unique, chatty, nosy little girl who broke the mould when she was born”.
They added: “Although her life was short, her personality certainly wasn’t, and she lived it to the most she could, and would blow people away with her wit and kindness. We as a family are heartbroken and have lost a huge part of our life.”
Olivia’s killing was the third shooting death in Liverpool in the space of a week, though it came after a year of no firearms deaths in Merseyside. The killings are not believed to have been connected.
Two men have been charged with the murder of Ashley Dale, a 28-year-old council worker shot outside her home in Old Swan on 21 August last year, in what is thought to be a case of mistaken identity. They will face trial in October.
Separately, four men were arrested on suspicion of murdering 22-year-old Sam Rimmer, who was shot dead in the Dingle area on 16 August 2022, though nobody has yet been charged.
