'I was not in a murder frame of mind': Man accused of killing Olivia Pratt-Korbel says he's 'wrongly blamed'
23 March 2023, 16:49 | Updated: 24 March 2023, 11:44
A man accused of murdering Olivia Pratt-Korbel has insisted he was not in a "murder frame of mind" on the day the nine-year-old girl was killed.
Thomas Cashman, 34, denies shooting her and injuring her mother after pursuing a convicted drug dealer into their home in Liverpool in August last year.
He was asked on Thursday why he left his home in the city at about 8.30pm on the day Olivia died.
"Were you starting to get excited?" asked prosecutor David McLachlan KC.
"No, I was not starting to get excited," Cashman replied.
"Were you starting to get in the murder frame of mind?"
Cashman said: "No, I was not getting in no murder frame of mind whatsoever."
He says he is not a man wearing black tracksuit trousers seen walking from his Citroen Berlingo van, parked in Aspes Road, not long after 9pm.
"What you say is just what you think. You're trying to make the jury believe what you think to be true when I'm telling you the truth," Cashman told the prosecutor.
It comes a day after he broke down at Manchester Crown Court, insisting: "I'm getting blamed for killing a child and I have got my own children.
"I'm a dad, I'm not a killer, I'm a dad.
"I'm getting blamed for something I haven't done."
Cashman, who has admitted being a "high-level cannabis dealer", said at about 9.15pm that night he was with his friend Craig Byrne, who had picked him up from where he parked his van on Aspes Road.
He said they went to Mr Byrne's house, on Snowberry Road, where they went into his spare bedroom to count about £10,000 in cash.
Cashman added: "We counted money then went downstairs, I done myself a spliff in the kitchen, went in the back garden and was having just a general chit-chat with Craig."
Read more: Man accused of murdering Olivia Pratt-Korbel tells court he was 'high level cannabis dealer'
He said when he later went into the front garden he could hear sirens and was told by someone there were "police everywhere".
The jury has heard from a woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, who had a fling with Cashman, a father of two with a partner of 22 years.
She claimed he went to her house after the shooting where he changed his clothes and she heard him saying he had "done Joey".
Asked if at any stage he did confess, Cashman said: "No, I did not… she is trying to ruin my life because, for one thing, I won't leave my partner for her. There's loads of reasons."
Cashman also claims the woman's boyfriend owed him a £25,000 drug debt so she wanted him "out of the way".
He has admitted being a high level cannabis dealer and said he dealt the drug locally.
Cashman, of Grenadier Drive, Liverpool, 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.
