The conviction of Thomas Cashman for the murder of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel was largely down to the testimony of a key witness, who now potentially faces a life under witness protection.
While Olivia’s family and police both praised the “powerful and emotional” evidence she gave in court, the witness now could be leaving her community in Liverpool behind – potentially being given a new name and identity.
Currently there is no evidence to suggest the witness, who has been granted lifelong anonymity, has moved into witness protection, but it has been reported she has been “given more death threats than any other protected witness in Merseyside for many years”.
“In her own words in court, she said that her life and the life of her family has been ruined by this whole episode,” Sky’s crime correspondent Martin Brunt explained.
“The woman gave evidence anonymously because she lives within this tight-knit community. She was giving evidence against not just one of her own, but a man with whom she had had an affair.
“Police sources suggest that Thomas Cashman was a much feared gangster in that part of Liverpool. So anybody giving evidence against him would understandably feel vulnerable.”
Despite receiving support from Merseyside Police, it is understood the witness was moved straight out of Liverpool where she now faces a “difficult life” if she wants to maintain her anonymity.
What is witness protection?
In a nutshell, witness protection in the UK is a voluntary scheme that protects a threatened person providing testimony to the justice system.
As Sky’s Martin Brunt explains, it aims to offer individuals with “something better than the alternative” of staying where they are and running the “risk of being killed”.
The precise number of individuals under witness protection is unknown, but there are thousands of people protected to varying degrees.
“It would mean – broadly – moving away from the area you’ve been living in with your family, a new identity, a new back story,” Brunt said.
“One of the difficulties people face is when they make new friends, they have to have a story to explain what they’ve been doing for the previous years, and they have to learn it and stick to it because to make a mistake can cause obvious problems.”
Even simple things such as FaceTiming family members or sending birthday gifts have to be closely monitored and sent through a special channel to be checked by police.
‘I was scared for my mum’
Reece, who spent several years in a witness protection programme during his childhood, said he initially enjoyed being somewhere different until his mother told him it wasn’t going to end.
Growing up, he also found that he would isolate himself from others, becoming “angry and bitter” at the situation he was in.
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“My mum didn’t want to go into witness protection but she started getting phone calls from private numbers about what was going to happen to her,” he told Sky News correspondent Sally Lockwood in the Sky News Daily Podcast.
“I was scared for my mum. I remember having to move around a lot. It was a hotel for three weeks, an apartment for a month and then another house. It was all over.”
Reece explained that he and his mum had to leave their house and all their sentimental possessions behind, only taking their clothes. They were also not allowed to contact their family and friends for at least a year at the start of witness protection.
“It was difficult. I started to notice my anger at around age 11 – it really impacted me,” he added.
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Protected people can ‘become complacent’
Criticism of the system has been raised in the past after some people reported being disappointed with their new lives.
Simon McKay, a barrister who has advised the government on witness protection, said one of the main problems when an individual enters witness protection is preconceived “sexy” ideas they have.
However, he says it quickly becomes clear these preconceptions are not true.
“The biggest vulnerability is always the protected person who can become complacent, who is just sick of their life and yearns for some contact with their former loved ones, family and friends,” Mr McKay said.
He added that social media has made things even more difficult to keep protected individuals safe as criminals can start to “put the jigsaw pieces together”, which can potentially lead to where the individuals are now located.
