MY OLIVIA WAS ADORED

Mum's tribute to 'sassy' daughter

- HOLLIE BONE

COWARD Thomas Cashman hid in a cell under the court as the people whose lives he destroyed when he murdered nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel told of their grief.

Olivia was shot dead by Cashman as he chased a fellow criminal into her home in Dovecot, Liverpool, in August.

By law, defendants can choose not to attend their sentencing hearing, and 34-year-old Cashman told his defence team he was refusing to go because his case had become "a circus".

If he had dared face that "circus" he would have heard harrowing victim impact statements from Olivia's mother, father and sister.

Despite losing her own grandmother on Sunday night, Olivia's mum, Cheryl Korbel, 46, stood up in court to pay tribute to her youngest daughter.

Clutching a pink teddy bear, Cheryl said: "I cannot get my head around how Cashman continued to shoot after hearing the terrifying screams. The utter devastation he has caused, he doesn't care, how could he? "His actions have left the biggest hole in our lives that can never be filled.

"That man set out to do a job and he didn't care about anyone else or who got in his way."

Olivia was killed by the same bullet which had hit her mum's wrist as she desperately tried to stop Cashman.