Liverpool violence: Government allocates £500k funding

The government has said it will allocate £500,000 for Merseyside to counter crime and provide mental health support after four killings in a week.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said "the whole country has been appalled at the spate of violence", which included the shooting of a nine-year-old girl.

She said the funds would "disrupt" organised crime in the region.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after Olivia Pratt-Korbel was shot in her home.

She died a day after council worker Ashley Dale was fatally shot in her back garden in Liverpool on Sunday.

The 28-year-old is not believed to have been the intended target of the attack, police said. Two arrests have been made.

Olivia Pratt-Korbel was hit in the chest as her mother struggled with a gunman

Detectives have also been asking the public help identify four suspects following the fatal shooting of 22-year-old Sam Rimmer in Liverpool on 16 August.

Karen Dempsey, 55, was also found stabbed in a pub car park near Kirkby on Monday. Her son has been charged with her murder.

Ms Patel said: "We will stop at nothing to drive down serious violence and ensure that fewer families have to endure the pain of losing a loved one in this way."

Trauma impact

A Birkenhead pilot to cut gun and knife crime - known as Clear, Hold, Build - will be rolled out across Merseyside following £350,000 of government funding.

The scheme, which started in January, has also been running in eight locations across England and Wales.

The Home Office has allocated the remaining £150,000 to fund trauma and mental health support for those closely affected by the recent attacks and for nearby schools.

Ms Patel said: "The impact on the wider community is immense, which is why we are providing funding for specialist trauma and mental health support for those who need it, as well as expanding the 'Clear, Hold, Build' pilot to disrupt Merseyside's corrosive and deadly Organised Crime Groups."

However Labour metro mayor Steve Rotheram said the cash pledged to get weapons off the streets and provide care to residents in the wake of the Liverpool shootings needs to be a "down payment".

Mr Rotheram told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: "I told her that that needs to be a down payment, as we look to what interventions are actually necessary to educate people at an earlier age, to ensure that there are interventions, that there are diversionary activities for people, that the society can reknit and grow together."

Ashley Dale, Sam Rimmer and Karen Dempsey were also killed on Merseyside in August

BBC home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds said there were early signs of a rise in gun crimes after a recent reduction since the coronavirus pandemic.

On Merseyside, there have been nine shooting incidents since April involving someone getting injured.

Sixteen guns have been seized in the region by police this year, with many more handed in as part of a firearms surrender programme held every two years.

In 2021-22, Merseyside Police recorded 211 firearm offences, placing it in the 10 worst affected areas in England and Wales.

Police recorded 5,752 firearm offences across England and Wales during the year to March 2022, just below the 6,618 offences recorded pre-pandemic.

London (1,066 offences) and the West Midlands (585) recorded the highest number of firearm offences in the past year.

Across England and Wales, a total of 35 deaths were reported involving a firearm in the year ending March 2021, with 27 being reported in the year before.