Olivia Pratt-Korbel murder-accused was 'high-level' drug dealer

Thomas Cashman has started giving evidence at Manchester Crown Court

The man accused of murdering Olivia Pratt-Korbel was a "high-level cannabis dealer", he has told a court.

Thomas Cashman is accused of killing the nine-year-old and injuring her mother after chasing Joseph Nee into their house in Liverpool on 22 August.

He has started giving evidence at the trial at Manchester Crown Court.

The 34-year-old told the jury he was making between £3,000 and £5,000 a week selling 5kg - 10kg (11 - 22lb) of cannabis.

He said: "I would buy cars, bikes, save some, go on holidays and just spend it on stuff that I enjoyed basically."

He said he left school at the age of 13 or 14 and by the time he was about 16 and working at a fair in Wales he was smoking cannabis every day.

Mr Cashman, who has two children with "childhood sweetheart" Kaylee Sweeney, said he started selling cannabis when he was about 18 on a "small scale".

He said: "I was basically smoking my profit."

But by 2021, when he and the family moved to a home in Grenadier Drive, Liverpool, he was selling at a "high level", he told the court.

He said: "I only ever sold it in my area where I've been brought up, so everyone I sold it to was everyone I knew."

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

John Cooper KC, defending, said: "You became a cannabis dealer, didn't you?"

Mr Cashman replied: "Yes, I was a cannabis dealer."

Mr Cooper then asked: "Were you a high-level cannabis dealer?"

To which the defendant answered: "Yes."

'Stash house'

He said his "catchment area" was around the Finch Lane area of Dovecot in Liverpool and he would often get the drugs dropped at his sister's house in Mab Lane.

From there he said he would take them to whoever had asked for them, or to his friend's house, which he said was used as a "stash house".

But there were issues with him using his sister's house, he told the court.

He said: "My sister's boyfriend is an ex-police officer.

"He didn't like it and he got on [at] my sister over it and they were having arguments between each other about me always being there."

He said on the day of the shooting his sister had told him to stop having people round to the house because of the arguments.

The defendant told the jury he knew Mr Nee, who he is alleged to have targeted in the shooting, and never had any problems with him or his brothers.

He claimed the day before Olivia was shot he was at the Nee family home to look at his brother's new Audi A6 car.

Asked about the suggestion he was "scoping things out" the day before the shooting, he said: "That is untrue, I wasn't."

Thomas Cashman told the jury he was making between £3,000 and £5,000 a week selling cannabis

He denied making any "confession" after the shooting to a key prosecution witness, a woman Mr Cashman was said to be having a "fling" with.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claims Mr Cashman came to her house after the shooting where he changed his clothing and she overheard him say he had "done Joey".

Mr Cashman said he dealt drugs to the woman's boyfriend, who owed him £25,000, and said she threatened to tell his partner they were having a relationship because he refused to go to Marbella to start a new life with her.

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Earlier the court heard the intended target of the shooting that killed Olivia was a convicted drug dealer with "enemies".

The jury was told the shooting was not the first Mr Nee had been involved in with David McLachlan KC, prosecuting, saying he and members of his immediate family "had their enemies".

He said Mr Nee was shot at by someone in March 2018, though the prosecution did not suggest Mr Cashman was responsible for or involved in the incident.

The jury was also told Mr Nee had convictions for conspiracy to supply controlled drugs, possession with intent to supply controlled drugs, possession of controlled drugs, burglary and theft, aggravated vehicle taking, theft of or from vehicles, associated motoring offences and a public order offence.

Mr Cashman denies the murder of Olivia, the attempted murder of Mr Nee, wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm to Olivia's mother Cheryl Korbel, and two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

The trial continues.