Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s killer to renew sentence appeal bid at hearing next month
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Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s killer will bring another bid to challenge his prison sentence at a Court of Appeal hearing next month.
Thomas Cashman, then aged 34, was jailed for life for shooting Olivia dead at her home in Dovecot, Liverpool, on August 22 last year.
His application for permission to challenge his 42-year minimum jail term was rejected by a judge without a hearing earlier this year.
But Court of Appeal staff confirmed on Tuesday that Cashman will be renewing his appeal bid at a hearing in London on November 15.
The shooting of Olivia occurred as Cashman was chasing convicted drug dealer Joseph Nee, who tried to run into the little girl’s home in a bid to escape.
Cashman opened fire, hitting Olivia’s mother Cheryl Korbel in the wrist as she tried to keep the door shut on Nee, with the same bullet killing her daughter.
In May, Solicitor General Michael Tomlinson KC said Cashman, a high-level Liverpool drug dealer, would not have his jail term increased.
It came after a number of requests were made for the father-of-two’s prison time to be lengthened via the unduly lenient sentence scheme.
Mr Tomlinson said that Olivia’s “senseless murder” had “shocked and sickened the nation”, but added: “Having received detailed legal advice and considered the issues raised very carefully, I have concluded Cashman’s case cannot properly be referred to the Court of Appeal”.
Olivia’s mother is among those campaigning for a change in the law to allow judges to force offenders to attend sentencing hearings, after Cashman refused to come up to the dock when he was sentenced.
