Newspaper headlines: 'Justice for Olivia' and 'lover shopped killer'

Olivia Pratt-KorbelFamily handout

Olivia was shot when a gunman burst into her house and opened fire

By BBC News
Staff

The conviction of Thomas Cashman for the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel at her home in Liverpool last year is front page news for the majority of the papers. The same headline, "justice for Olivia", is used by the Daily Mirror and the Daily Express which pictures the schoolgirl's mother, Cheryl Korbel, holding a pink teddy bear made from her daughter's clothes as she celebrated the guilty verdict outside court. The Daily Mail describes Cashman as a "monster". It highlights a photograph of him "smirking" and making a gun gesture as he pretends to shoot a waxwork model of the late Queen. The Sun says the killer was "shopped" by his former lover who was "sickened by his crime".

Noting that Cashman made a quarter of a million pounds a year selling cannabis, the Daily Telegraph says his attack on Olivia has reignited a debate about the role the drugs trade plays in violent crime. The paper features a warning by Chris Green, the police officer who led the murder investigation, who said that people who used recreational drugs were driving the organised crime responsible for Olivia's death. The Telegraph claims a "deadly arms race" across Merseyside has seen feuding gangs resort to military-grade weapons as they vie for territory leaving some residents so frightened they have even started wearing makeshift bulletproof vests to go to the shops.

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Cheryl Korbel holds aloft a teddy made from her daughter Olivia's clothes

With the headline "retire early if you did not go to university", the Times says that people who joined the labour market straight from school could be exempt from rises to the state pension age. The current age is 66, but independent estimates suggest that those born after 1980 could work past 70. The paper says an official review has now recommended ministers consider an "early access scheme" aimed at helping those who have spent their lives doing manual work, meaning 65-year-olds who do not have a degree but do have a full record of National Insurance contributions could be allowed to receive their state pension years before graduates of the same age.

A new study warning that a wave of tax and price rises is set to leave families with a £50,000 income almost £700 a year worse off is featured by the Guardian. It says bills for dental work, prescriptions, water, broadband and car tax will all jump as government departments and regulated companies are allowed to impose inflation-busting rises, while average annual council tax bills will top £2,000 for the first time. The Trade Union Congress has told the paper that the cost of living nightmare is "far from over" with "millions still living wage packet to wage packet".

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Plants emit sounds a study by Tel Aviv University has suggested

Several papers highlight research that claims plants "cry out" when they're distressed or need water. The Daily Telegraph says recordings show the plants make "occasional ultrasonic popping noises similar to bubble wrap which increase when they are under stress". According to the Sun, the sounds are hard for humans to detect "but animals, insects and other organisms may be able to hear them". The Daily Mirror suggests that gardeners apply some "herbal medicine" after doing the pruning.