The thug who helped Thomas Cashman cover up for the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel was given a new ID card – sparking family outrage
OLIVIA Pratt-Korbel’s family stormed out of court today as a new identity was handed to a thug who helped her killer cover his tracks.
Paul Russell, 41, helped Thomas Cashman get rid of clothes he wore during the horror shooting in Liverpool.
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It came shortly after nine-year-old Olivia was shot in the chest after being caught in the crossfire of a deadly gang war.
Russell has now been jailed for 22 months after pleading guilty to assisting a perpetrator.
Olivia’s family, including mum Cheryl, cried during the hearing at Liverpool Crown Court today.
Her brother Ryan stormed out of court when it was announced that Russell would be given a new identity.
His attorney, Tom Schofield, said the employee would be “looking over his shoulder for years to come.”
It came as Olivia’s father, John Francis Pratt, screamed “so what” when the court was told Russell’s prison time had been “particularly isolating” due to a threat to his safety.
Prosecutors have accepted that Russell “was unaware of the real horrors” of Cashman’s crimes when he helped him.
Cashman was “gardening” to Russell’s partner’s house after the bloodbath and woke her up at her bedside.
She called her partner, who admitted his “heart sank knowing Cashman’s reputation” and was “scared” of him.
He said: “When she called me my heart broke. My world just collapsed.
“I didn’t like him anyway … I didn’t want to see him fair and devastated.”
After Russell arrived, the killer told him he was “involved in an incident that involved a chase and a shooting” but “did not elaborate.”
He replied, “Boy don’t wanna hear it, don’t tell me,” before driving Cashman to his Citroen Berlingo van.
This was despite knowing that his shameless actions “could hinder his arrest by the police”.
Russell later took Cashman’s clothes to another associate – although the under armor top and sweatpants he later gave the killer proved key to his capture.
The clothing was found to contain two particles of gun residue and a stain of Cashman’s blood.
In a police interview, Russell “admitted everything he had done” after meeting with a detective to name Cashman as the man responsible for Olivia’s murder.
He also denied being the killer’s “sidekick” and told officers he was “scared” of the high-level drug dealer.
Russell claimed Cashman drove by his home the day after the shooting and threatened, “Don’t say anything.”
The serial offender has 13 prior convictions for 16 offenses between 1998 and 2011.
Mitigatingly, Russell’s attorney, Tom Schofield, said: “The defendant is the epitome of remorse for what he did.
“His involvement in the events of August 22, however significant or incidental, will be a source of shame until his death.
“He’ll never live it out.”
Cashman was sentenced this month to life in prison with a minimum of 42 years in prison for the “particularly serious” and “terrifying” murder.
The horror unfolded on August 22 last year in a “preplanned and reckless attack” that “went terribly wrong.”
Armed with a pistol and revolver, Cashman was “waiting” for Nee, 35, to leave a friend’s house where he had watched the Utd v Liverpool game.
The convicted burglar was shot at in the street before breaking into Olivia’s home, injured and covered in blood.
Cashman then fired two shots into the house as Olivia “got in the line of fire” while she was “seeking comfort” from her mother, Cheryl.
Cheryl shared how her daughter “got confused” and her eyes traveled to the back of her head before saying it sounded something like “mommy.”
The mother-of-three said she yelled at her son Ryan to help Olivia get up the stairs as she tried to stem the blood from her own wound.
Then Cheryl realized the boy had been hit square in the chest as she “gasped” in desperation.
Cheryl’s heartbreaking evidence brought the courtroom to tears as she told police: “There was just screaming. I heard the shot I knew it because he hit my hand.
“I heard the baby cry and I turned around and saw her sitting at the bottom of the stairs.
“I just bent over her. I lifted her top. That’s when I realized she’d been shot in the chest.”
As her little girl slipped away in her arms, Cheryl called out, “Please Liv, stay with me.”
Sobbing in her police interview, she told officers a neighbor came in to start CPR, but she “knew she had left.”
Tragically, Olivia could not be saved and died in hospital later that night.
Cashman, meanwhile, was caught on CCTV fleeing the scene as medics struggled to save Olivia.
He changed his clothes and confessed to his former lover, who became a key witness in the case.
Dramatic bodycam footage showed Cashman telling officers upon his arrest, “You’re stitching me up.”
The thug continued his shameless lies in court, where he cried as he claimed he was not behind the brutal murder.
He has now launched an attempt to have his sentence reduced, while the attorney general’s office has received a motion asking for the sentence to be considered too light.
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