'I knew she had gone': Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s mum sobs as she reveals moment daughter shot dead at home
9 March 2023, 16:19 | Updated: 9 March 2023, 17:39
Olivia Pratt-Korbel's mother has described the heart-rending moment she realised her nine-year-old daughter had been shot in an attack prosecutors claim was a botched gangland shooting.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Olivia was killed when Joseph Nee forced his way into the family home in Dovecot, Liverpool, on August 22 last year, pursued by a gunman, who prosecutors claim was Thomas Cashman.
Her mother Chloe, who was shot in the hand as she tried to close the door, was "completely inconsolable" as she tried to get a towel to stem the flow of blood, neighbours said.
The jury in Cashman's trial at Manchester Crown Court were shown a video interview with Ms Korbel on Thursday.
The mother of three told police she had heard bangs outside and when she went outside to look, saw a man coming up the road.
She said: "Then I spotted this other lad behind him, dressed all in black, couldn't see his face or nothing, and I realised at that point that it was gunshots because, like, the other one was running after him.
"At that point I realised he was running towards me so I ran back to the house."
Ms Korbel said she closed her front door but it did not shut properly because it was left on the catch.
Speaking through tears and with her arm in a bandage, Ms Korbel said: "I tried to keep hold of the door, I was just screaming, screaming to go away and then I heard the gunshot and I realised, because I felt it hit my hand.
"I couldn't keep the door shut because it wasn't locked, and with my hand I couldn't keep it shut, so I let it go and I think at the same time I heard the baby speak and that's when I turned round and I spotted her sat at the bottom of the stairs.
"I leant over her and like held her to the left, I just huddled over."
She said her son Ryan helped her to carry Olivia up the stairs and she shouted for a towel to stop the bleeding.
She added: "Ryan turned round and said to me 'mum, I can't do this' so I tried to move the baby again up to the top of the stairs.
"I heard the lad downstairs shouting 'please lad, don't' and I heard another gunshot. I couldn't keep her awake."
She added: "She went all floppy and her eyes went to the back of her head and I realised that she must have been hit because I didn't know until then, and I lifted her top up and the bullet had got her right in the middle of the chest."
She said a neighbour came in and started CPR on Olivia.
She added: "I knew she'd gone, I knew she'd gone. Then the police turned up and came up and just picked her up and took her out the house."
She said she was taken to hospital for treatment to her hand and while she was there, she was told Olivia "had gone".
She said: "I just went hysterical screaming I wanted my baby."
She described a phone call with a friend who was with Olivia at Alder Hey Children's Hospital.
Ms Korbel told police: "She told me she was with the baby and I told her not to leave her on her own and she promised me that she wouldn't.
"She said she looked like she was sleeping, so I made her promise she wouldn't leave her on her own."
A number of people in the public gallery were in tears as Ms Korbel's interview was played.
The court heard earlier on Thursday how neighbours recalled Ms Korbel screaming "she's dying" after Olivia was shot in the chest, as she tried to staunch the bleeding with a towel.
Olivia Pratt-Korbel's family release tribute to nine-year-old
Olivia Heffron, who was at her partner's house across the street from Olivia's home, said she heard three or four loud bangs in the street outside and went to the window.
She saw one man she thought was holding a gun, pursuing a second man who was saying, "What are you doing lad?"
Ms Heffron then saw Ms Korbel come out of her house to her front gate, to see what was going on, then run back to her front door.
The first male, Nee, followed, banging on her door, shouting, "Help me!" Ms Heffron told police. She then heard a bang and saw a flash.
Afterwards the street "descended into chaos" Ms Heffron said and she saw her neighbour screaming, shouting, "She is dying, she's been shot in the chest. Has anyone got a towel?"
Father of Olivia Pratt-Korbel says her death ‘cannot be in vain’
Ms Heffron added: "I have never seen anyone in such a state of stress before. Officers ran into the house before exiting a few seconds later carrying a child who looked like she had died."
Libby Boylan had just parked up outside her house over the road with her mother Lisa Boylan in the passenger seat when she heard two loud bangs, shortly before 10pm on August 22 last year.
Ms Boylan said: "I then heard my mum shout, 'Oh my God!'
"I looked behind me, I saw a lad run past my car on my mum's side and run onto the pavement in front of my car.
"I saw a second male chasing the first male. I heard him saying, 'Don't lad' and continue running.
"At some point I heard my mum saying, 'He's got a gun'.
"I then saw this male run into the driveway of a house a few doors down on the road.
"The security light came on which illuminated the second male. I then saw him stop running and raise his right hand towards the front door of the house.
"I saw he had a small black handgun in a gloved hand then saw a flash and heard another loud bang.
"I felt panicky and decided to drive away from this situation."
A few minutes later she drove back to the street just as police arrived.
Her statement added: "I saw officers run into the address then saw an officer run out of the address carrying a little girl in his arms. I could see her pyjamas were blood-stained.
"I'm shocked and distressed about the whole thing. I can't get this little girl out of my head."
Adele Maher, another neighbour, looked through her bedroom blinds after hearing two loud bangs and saw one male dressed in black, "from head to toe" chasing another male who was pleading, "Please lad, please."
Mrs Maher said this was immediately followed by, "the worst screaming I have ever heard in my life. Women screaming, hysterical, out of control. It threw me into an instant panic. I flew downstairs and was hyperventilating.
"Then loads of blue lights and sirens appeared outside."
Rebecca Power was in her bedroom watching a film with her children when she heard two loud bangs and went to the window to see a man outside with a gun chasing a second man.
"I reacted by pushing my children away from the window. I grabbed my phone and dialled 999. I was terrified," she told police.
Opening the case earlier this week, David McLachlan KC, prosecuting, told the jury Cashman killed Olivia in a shooting which had gone "horribly wrong".
Cashman denies the murder of Olivia, the attempted murder of Nee, wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm to Olivia's mother, and two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
The trial continues.
