Olivia Pratt-Korbel: Reformed Liverpool gangster says ‘morals have gone out of the window’ among city’s criminals
Sicarius McGrath is a big guy. Muscled, shaven-headed and more than a little intimidating – everything you might expect of a Liverpool gangster.
But his days of roaming the streets of Anfield are over and now he helps steer vulnerable and deprived kids away from a life of gangland crime.
With convictions for violence and intimidation, he knows his subject and was an enlightening companion as together we toured the city’s estates, waiting for the jury verdicts in the Olivia Pratt-Korbel murder trial.
I drove, he talked. When he was setting up a gun factory and protection rackets he was known as Anthony Harrington.
At 7pm Sky News will broadcast a special programme: The murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel
Sicarius McGrath says he used to ‘put guns on the streets in massive volumes’
His adopted name Sicarius means “assassin”, but he didn’t go to a school that taught Latin. I did, but that isn’t the only difference between us.
“I used to put guns on the streets in massive volumes,” he told me, rather matter-of-factly.
“They are bought and paid for through drugs money. I felt responsibility 100% for the things that happened, whether someone was harmed as a result, but when you’re in that game you don’t give a s***. It’s profits over anything else.
“Decades ago there was a moral code, that you didn’t harm women, you didn’t harm kids. I’m not saying that little girl was shot intentionally, but those morals have gone out of the window.
“I was mixing in those circles and surroundings, so I’m a bit of a hypocrite to say now they are absolute scum, but I was once that scumbag.”
Read more: Thomas Cashman found guilty of murdering Olivia Pratt-Korbel
Olivia Pratt-Korbel was shot dead in her home
Although Merseyside Police had a key witness within a day or two of Olivia’s shooting, they struggled to find the direct evidence detectives always strive for.
There were no forensics, no eyewitnesses who could identify the killer and the two guns used have not been found.
I asked Mr McGrath how a close community deals with the conflict of outrage and the need for justice, set against loyalty and the fear of being labelled a grass.
“People are going to be reluctant, of course they are, depending on who commits the murder. If it’s established gang members people are going to be more reluctant. Everyone says there’s a code, no grassing, but criminals will grass each other up,” he said.
“It’s a question of what benefits them, if they can get a rival out of the way, bring police attention on them, but they’re not just gonna do it for charity.”
Gasps as Thomas Cashman found guilty on all charges – follow updates
What about the ordinary public – wouldn’t they be more scared of retribution for giving police information?
“It’s gonna be scary, they’re not really going to want to get involved, but when it’s a little girl the rule book goes out the window and you have to dig deep,” he said.
“People are more likely to engage with the police when it’s a young girl murdered and it’s up to the police to reassure them they are going to protect them.”
A month on from the shooting, after initial arrests but no charges, and with police still appealing for help, an anonymous businessman offered a remarkable £100,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of Olivia’s killer.
Lord Ashcroft, the founder of Crimestoppers, had also initially offered a £50,000 reward – but the anonymous donation prompted him to double his offer and, at £200,000 combined, it became the biggest ever reward.
At 7pm Sky News will broadcast a special programme: The murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel
Olivia’s coffin carried by horse-drawn carriage on the day of her funeral. Pic: AP
The other businessman, who did not want to be named for safety reasons, said: “When I heard that there was a seeming reluctance for people to come forward and testify, that’s what really got my back up.
“I thought, well, I’m going to try and do something about this. It was an amount that would make people sit up and make it as easy as possible for them to help catch the killer.”
The businessman’s family are from Merseyside and memories of his childhood in the area fuelled his desire for justice for Olivia.
“I understand people’s reluctance to speak out and I’ve thought about my own safety in putting up the reward. Like others, I had doubts and worries, but Crimestoppers assured me my identity would be protected. The bottom line is that this was horrific, the murder of a young girl. It doesn’t come much worse than that.”
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The battle between Liverpool’s gangs
Mick Duthie, director of operations at Crimestoppers, said the reward had prompted “a phenomenal amount” of information from the public.
“I understand that in communities people don’t want to be seen as a grass or make themselves vulnerable, they don’t want to talk to the police, so the charity allows people to speak up anonymously,” he said.
“The community of Liverpool provided so much information. It wasn’t for us to decide how important it was. We took it and passed it on to Merseyside Police.”
As we drove through Dovecot, where Olivia was murdered, I asked Mr McGrath whether £200,000 was a life-changing amount for people in this community.
“For someone anywhere in the country it’s a life-changing amount of money,” he said.
“People are struggling to put their lights on and run their cookers. A reward of £200,000 is gonna benefit the vast majority of people, criminals and non-criminals.”
Sixteen years ago, schoolboy Rhys Jones, who was 11, was shot dead – caught in cross-fire – only a few miles from here.
I reported on it at the time and Mr McGrath was in prison, but we both remember the loud and widespread calls for change.
Rhys Jones was shot dead after being caught in cross-fire close to his home
Mr McGrath said: “They always say that when a young person is stabbed or shot, they always say enough is enough, they’re going to take a stand but communities never do. It’s all just words.
“A couple of days or weeks later they go back to doing what they were doing. It’s only the families that are left suffering. Whoever shot Olivia, whoever’s convicted, his friends won’t stop talking to him because he shot a young girl.”
A blitz on organised crime and guns by Merseyside Police has driven down the number of firearms discharges to record low levels in the past couple of years.
There hadn’t been one reported in more than a year before last August. But then Olivia became the third gun murder victim in just a week. And there have been two more in the city since.
A police officer described the students stabbed to death in Nottingham last summer as “proper butchered” and said officers “tried to hold their inners in”.
Sky News can reveal the “disgusting” police WhatsApp message sent in the aftermath of the killings of Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar on 13 June 2023.
Their families are horrified by the language used by an officer when discussing the stabbings with colleagues.
Valdo Calocane, 32, a paranoid schizophrenic, stabbed the two 19-year-olds to death as they walked home from a night out before flagging down and killing 65-year-old school caretaker Ian Coates.
At the time, one officer messaged colleagues on a WhatsApp group.
The message said: “So 2 students on Ilkeston road have been proper butchered, 4 section [officers] turned up and tried to hold their inners in. Suspects then made off and attacked a man in a car on magdala [road] and stabbed him to death.”
Another officer, PC Matt Gell, then shared the message outside of the police WhatsApp group with his wife and two friends.
The families of Barnaby and Grace learned of the contents of the message in February but were so disturbed by its contents that they have only felt comfortable publicising it now, despite the pain it causes them.
Grace’s father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, said the message is “so disgusting”.
Valdo Calocane was given a hospital order for the killings. Pic: PA
“Would anyone with a child, a mother, a relative use words like that?” he asked.
“Why have police in Nottinghamshire forgotten that these are our dear and beloved children they are referring to? I have tears in my eyes every time the message echoes in my head,” said Dr Kumar.
“The message is as barbaric as the crime for me.”
Nottinghamshire’s chief constable Kate Meynell acknowledged to Dr Kumar that some of the WhatsApp message was “crude and distasteful”.
‘Callous and degrading’
Emma Webber, Barnaby’s mother, has now written an open letter to the members of the WhatsApp group after requests to meet the officers involved were rejected by the force.
“The callous, degrading and desensitised manner of your comments have caused more trauma than you can imagine,” she wrote.
“When you say ‘a couple of students have been properly butchered’ did you stop to think about the absolute terror that they felt in the moment when they were ambushed and repeatedly stabbed by a man who had planned his attack and lay waiting in the shadows for them?
“When you say ‘innards out and everything’ did you think about the agony they felt and the final thoughts that went through their minds as this vicious individual inflicted wounds so serious that they had no chance of surviving?”
Caretaker Ian Coates was also murdered in the rampage. Pic: Huntingdon Academy
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‘Murderers can get away with murder’ – victims’ families
Mrs Webber’s letter also calls for tougher action for the officer involved.
“Anyone who can witness the details of such a horror as happened… and refer to lost children as butchered animals; should seriously consider their position,” she says.
“So, to the author of that message, who we understand has received a management warning. I pray you will read this and pause for a while.
“Dig a little deeper for compassion and care. Show the respect in the future that you did not afford Barney.”
PC admits ‘lapse of judgement’
The officer who wrote the message did not face a misconduct hearing but received ‘management intervention’.
In January, PC Gell, who forwarded the message to people outside the force, was found guilty of gross misconduct and given a final written warning after he looked up records relating to Calocane when he had no part in the investigation.
Read more:
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Victim’s mum ‘burst into tears’ when told of sentence review
Forensics officers at the scene after the June attacks. Pic: PA
The panel at the hearing agreed with his acknowledgement that he had “a lapse of judgement”.
A special constable was also sacked for viewing body-worn footage of the two students in their final moments.
Almost 180 police staff were found to have viewed material relating to the case, with 11 of them having no “legitimate reason” to do so.
Nottinghamshire Police referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct after the families raised a number of concerns over the investigation and police conduct, including the force’s failure to inform relatives their Professional Standards Directorate was investigating officers.
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The College of Policing is also conducting a review of how the force handled the case.
Deputy Chief Constable Steve Cooper previously told Sky News that action over the WhatsApp message was taken “immediately”.
“Some of the words were crude and distasteful. It was a single message and no images were taken or shared,” he said.
The post office scandal extends “greatly beyond” faulty Horizon software, according to a lawyer for victims.
Paul Marshall, representing former sub-postmasters, says problems with third party systems in branches, such as ATMs, have been “overlooked”.
A 2013 report commissioned by the Post Office, and not made public at the time, states: “Removing the ATM reduces the risk of (the sub-postmaster) being suspended… as does the presence of lottery tickets, (banking) services, and DVLA processing.”
It indicates there were issues known to the Post Office with third party systems within branches – separate to Horizon software.
Barrister Paul Marshall believes, as a result, there are “no convictions” secured by the Post Office against any sub-postmaster “that could or should properly be treated as safe”.
He says evidence of third party errors, such as ATMs, shows “the scandal extends considerably beyond, greatly beyond, it might be said, the limited focus of bugs in Horizon”.
Blanket exoneration legislation being introduced this summer will only quash convictions brought about “by erroneous Horizon evidence”.
Mr Marshall asserts that postmasters who have had appeals against convictions rejected by the Court of Appeal may have lost because their offences didn’t fall within the “narrow scope” of Horizon issues.
“Horizon was the only accounting system,” says Mr Marshall, “so other systems like ATM machines, bank giro payments, pension payments, lottery tickets, they’re all processed by Horizon, but they weren’t Horizon.”
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Review into another Post Office system
“The position adopted by the Court of Appeal,” he states, “is if this is a Horizon shortfall case, that is the sole basis you can have your conviction overturned.
“But you could lose your business and have an accounting shortfall that has got absolutely nothing to do with Horizon.”
The report by Detica, a consulting division of BAE systems, concluded that “Post Office systems are not fit for purpose in a modern retail and financial environment”.
Chirag Siphura’s case – ATM shortfalls
Chirag Sidhpura received interim compensation last year
Chirag Siphura was threatened with prosecution for ATM shortfalls at his branch in Surrey in 2017, four years after the Post Office received the Detica report.
He was ordered to pay £57,000.
Last year he received interim compensation, with Post Office accepting it was a “Horizon related” issue.
He says that the banks “used to be able to access the ATM remotely”, and that they would carry out updates, “but where the updates happened remotely the figures were always thrown out”.
Mr Siphura describes how the Post Office “always believed the figures that the ATM was giving were 100% correct”.
“If the bank came back and said ‘no, this figure is not correct’,” he continues, “then the Post Office will always take their word over our word.
“And we would then have to come up with evidence to demonstrate their figures are wrong.”
With an IT background Chirag was able to eventually investigate.
IT expert Jason Coyne: Many more impacted.
Jason Coyne believes believes many more people affected by third party systems may not have come forward
IT expert Jason Coyne, hired by Alan Bates and other sub-postmasters, submitted a report as part of their High Court case in 2016.
He describes asking the Post Office for information related to third party systems, such as ATMs.
“They would attempt to resist my request for information,” he says, “because what they would say is this isn’t Horizon information and therefore it’s outside of the Horizon trial.”
He says that the High Court judge at the time, Mr Justice Fraser, was “rightly trying to keep the Horizon trial just about the Horizon system”.
“But what he didn’t know at the time,” he continues, “…is that all of these third party systems were absolutely critical to Horizon’s operation” so it was “wrong of Post Office to prevent us access to those documents.”
Mr Coyne believes “many more people” affected by third party systems may not have come forward to date – separate to those already identified as having Horizon issues.
Wendy Cousins case: “My wife died totally innocent”.
Wendy Cousins is shown on her wedding day. Pic: Paul Cousins
Wendy Cousins was convicted of stealing £13,000, relating to pension payments, from her branch in 2005.
Judges at the Court of Appeal ruled that the Horizon computer software had not been “essential” to her prosecution, and upheld her conviction.
She died in February 2022 – less than a year later.
Her husband Paul says he believes her conviction “was a factor in her premature death” from cancer.
“She was treated as a criminal right from the very start,” he says, “…they stuck a sign on the door saying ‘Closed’.”
Paul Cousins says Wendy was persuaded to plead guilty to escape jail.
He is convinced of her innocence and wants her case reviewed again.
“My hope would be that Wendy will be exonerated,” he says.
A Post Office spokesperson said: “We are deeply sorry for the pain which has been suffered by so many people throughout the Horizon IT Scandal.”
They added: “We remain focused on supporting the inquiry.”
In a statement the Department for Business and Trade said it was “committed to righting the wrong of the past and have introduced urgent legislation to overturn the convictions of hundreds of postmasters before the summer.
“If any further injustices emerge, these can be considered by the Criminal Complaints Review Commission, which can ask the Court of Appeal to overturn convictions,” the statement added.
UK
Former Democratic Unionist Party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to appear in court charged with rape
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, will appear in court this morning charged with rape and other historical sex offences.
The 61-year-old, who is Northern Ireland’s longest-serving MP, was suspended by the party following his arrest last month.
In a statement at the time, the DUP said: “The Party Chairman has received a letter from Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP confirming that he has been charged with allegations of an historical nature and indicating that he is stepping down as Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party with immediate effect.
“In accordance with the Party Rules, the Party Officers have suspended Mr Donaldson from membership, pending the outcome of a judicial process.”
In his resignation letter, he said he would be strenuously contesting the charges.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson had been arrested at his home in County Down the previous morning and taken to Antrim Police Station for questioning.
In a short statement, the Police Service of Northern Ireland confirmed that a 61-year-old man had been charged with “non-recent sexual offences” and that a 57-year-old woman, arrested at the same time, had been charged with “aiding and abetting” in connection with the offences.
Both are due to appear before Newry Magistrates Court in County Down.
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Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who has been MP for Lagan Valley for 27 years, was knighted for his services to politics in 2016.
He helped broker the DUP’s £1bn confidence and supply deal with Theresa May’s minority Tory government, when the party held the balance of power at Westminster between 2017 and 2019.
More recently, he had compromised and led his party back into the power-sharing government at Stormont, which it had boycotted for two years over post-Brexit trading arrangements.
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