The mother and aunt of murdered schoolgirl Olivia Pratt-Korbel spoke to Good Morning Britain today about the historic change in legislation which means that there will be a punishment for anyone who refuses to attend their sentencing hearing in court.
Reacting to the change in law, Cheryl Korbel, whose nine-year-old daughter Olivia Pratt-Korbel was killed in a shooting last year, said: “It is a very important step forward. It will bring a little bit of comfort knowing that no other family will go through what we’ve been through.”
Cheryl and Olivia’s aunt Antonia Elverson set up the campaign ‘Face the Family’ to petition for a change in law after Olivia was killed. Asked by Susanna Reid whether she backed calls for visiting rights to be denied, should prisoners refuse to listen to the sentencing, Cheryl said: “Too right. I can go visit my daughter, but all I’ve got to look at is a [head]stone. They can still see their families. It’s not right.”
It’s currently suggested that prisoners who refuse to face sentencing in court will have an extra two years added to their sentence, but Olivia’s family say that this doesn’t go far enough. Antonia said: “24 months sounds a long time. But if you’re looking at a really lengthy sentence, of 25 plus years, two years is neither here nor there. That’s what they’re suggesting, and that’s what they’re going to be putting forward.
“Obviously we have no choice but to agree with that at the moment. Whether or not that’s something that we look at campaigning against if it’s not a deterrent, I don’t know.”
Speaking on the importance of the new law, Cheryl added: “It’s one thing listening to solicitors and barristers saying how painful it is. It’s completely different when it comes from a family member or the victims. It resonates a lot deeper.”
Olivia Pratt-Korbel died in August 2022 after Thomas Cashman opened fire when he chased another man into her home in Dovecot, Liverpool.
Cheryl said: “I really did want to address him – for the pain that he’s put us through, that we’re still going through. And to have the audacity to be there for the whole month and then not to turn up on the day of the sentence. It’s disrespectful to the family and to the judge, not to hear the sentence being passed.” Speaking over a year on from her murder, Cheryl said: “You don’t realise until you lose that person how impactful it is on everything you do. I just feel she is with me all the time.”
Antonia added: “She was a cheeky chappy. A lot of the time it’s the silence that we miss.”
Joining from Westminster, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk MP:
“I just want to pay tribute to Cheryl. How she has found the strength to do this, to campaign all the time like this…This does nothing to bring back her beloved daughter but it makes life better for other people. I find that incredibly moving.”
He described the law change as “critically important.”
Good Morning Britain weekdays from 6am on ITV1 & ITVX
