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.
Advertisement
Growing up, he also found that he would isolate himself from others, becoming “angry and bitter” at the situation he was in.
“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.
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.
The threat of physical attacks by Iran on people living in the UK has increased “significantly” since 2022, according to a new report by parliament’s intelligence watchdog.
Iran poses a “wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat” to the UK, according to the Intelligence and Security Committee.
It also said Iran’s intelligence services were “willing and able – often through third party agents – to attempt assassination within the UK, and kidnap from the UK”.
Image: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Pic: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/West Asia News Agency/Reuters
The report said there have been 15 murder or kidnap attempts against British citizens or UK-based individuals since the beginning of 2022 and August 2023.
Sky News has approached the Iranian embassy for a comment.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:30
Millions of Iranians unite in mourning
The report authors add: “Whilst Iran’s activity appears to be less strategic and on a smaller scale than Russia and China, Iran poses a wide-ranging threat to UK national security, which should not be underestimated: it is persistent and crucially – unpredictable.”
The committee also says that while the threat is often focused on dissidents and other opponents to the regime, there is also an increased threat to Jewish and Israeli interests in the UK.
More on Iran
Related Topics:
The report warns that while Iran has not developed a nuclear weapon, it has taken steps towards that goal.
It found that Iran had been “broadly compliant” with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), aimed at limiting its nuclear ambitions.
But since Donald Trump withdrew from that deal in 2018, the report said the nuclear threat had increased and Tehran “had the capability to arm in a relatively short period”.
The UK government is also accused of “fire-fighting” rather than developing a real understanding of Iran.
Image: Iran’s president oversees a parade in Tehran in April showing off the country’s military hardware. Pic: West Asia News Agency/Reuters
Image: Missiles are paraded through the capital during the recent National Army Day ceremony. Pic: West Asia News Agency/Reuters
The report says: “The government’s policy on Iran has suffered from a focus on crisis management, driven by concerns over Iran’s nuclear programme, to the exclusion of other issues.
“As one of our expert witnesses told the committee: ‘Strategy is not a word that I think has crossed the lips of policy makers for a while, certainly not in relation to Iran’.”
The committee concluded its evidence-taking in August 2023, the result of two years of work, but the report authors say their conclusions “remain relevant”.
But the report authors questioned whether UK sanctions against individuals would “in practice deliver behavioural change. Or in fact unhelpfully push Iran towards China”.
The committee also said the British government should consider proscribing the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), although some argue it would limit the UK’s ability to talk to and influence Iran.
Responding to the report, a UK government spokesperson said: “The government will take action wherever necessary to protect national security, which is a foundation of our plan for change.
“We have already placed Iran on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme and introduced further sanctions against individuals and entities linked to Iran, bringing the total number of sanctions to 450.”
British security services say Tehran uses criminal proxies to carry out its work in Britain.
In December, two Romanians were charged after a journalist working for a Persian language media organisation in London was stabbed in the leg. In May, three Iranian men appeared in court charged with assisting Iran’s foreign intelligence service and plotting violence against journalists.
Earlier this year, the UK government said it would require the Iranian state to register everything it does to exert political influence in the UK, because of what it called increasingly aggressive activity.
The first thing you notice when immigration officers stop a possible illegal moped delivery driver is the speed in which the suspect quickly taps on their mobile.
“We’re in their WhatsApp groups – they’ll be telling thousands now that we’re here… so our cover is blown,” the lead immigration officer tells me.
“It’s like a constant game of cat and mouse.”
Twelve Immigration Enforcement officers, part of the Home Office, are joining colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police in a crackdown on road offences and migrants working illegally.
The West of England and Wales has seen the highest number of arrests over the last year for illegal workers outside of London.
“It is a problem… we’re tackling it,” Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says. He covers all the devolved nations.
“This is just one of the operations going on around the country, every day of the week, every month of the year.”
Image: Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says his team are attempting to tackle the issue
Just outside the Cabot Circus shopping complex, we stop a young Albanian man who arrived in the UK on the back of a truck.
He’s on an expensive and fast-looking e-bike, with a new-looking Just Eat delivery bag.
He says he just uses it for “groceries” – but the officer isn’t buying it. He’s arrested, but then bailed instantly.
We don’t know the specifics of his case, but one officer tells me this suspected offence won’t count against his asylum claim.
Such is the scale of the problem – the backlog, loopholes and the complexity of cases – that trying to keep on top of it feels impossible.
This is one of many raids happening across the UK as part of what the government says is a “blitz” targeting illegal working hotspots.
Angela Eagle, the border security and asylum minister, joins the team for an hour at one of Bristol’sretail parks, scattered with fast food chains and, therefore, delivery bikes.
Image: Border security and asylum minister, Angela Eagle, speaks to Sky News
She says arrests for illegal working are up over the last year by 51% from the year before, to more than 7,000.
“If we find you working, you can lose access to the hotel or the support you have [been] given under false pretences,” she said.
“We are cracking down on that abuse, and we intend to keep doing so.”
There are reports that asylum seekers can rent legitimate delivery-driver accounts within hours of arriving in the country – skipping employment legality checks.
Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat all told Sky News they’re continuing to strengthen the technology they use to remove anyone working illegally.
But a new Border Security Bill, working its way through Parliament, could see companies fined £60,000 for each illegal worker discovered, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to five years.
“I had them all in to see me last week and I told them in no uncertain terms that we take a very tough line on this kind of abuse and they’ve got to change their systems so they can drive it out and off their platforms,” the minister tells me.
For some of those who arrive, a bike and a phone provide a way to repay debts to gang masters.
There were eight arrests today in Bristol, one or two taken into custody, but it was 12 hours of hard work by a dozen immigration officers and the support of the police.
As two mopeds are pushed onto a low-loader, you can’t help but feel, despite the best intentions, that at the moment, this is a losing battle.
We see the boat from a distance – the orange of the life jackets reflected in the rising sun.
And as we draw closer, we can make out dozens of people crowded on board as it sets off from the shore, from a beach near Dunkirk.
There is no sign of any police activity on the shore, and there are no police vessels in the water.
Instead, the migrants crammed into an inflatable dinghy are being watched by us, on board a private boat, and the looming figure of the Minck, a French search and rescue ship that soon arrives.
Image: Minck, a French search and rescue ship, shadows the boat
The dinghy meanders. It’s not heading towards Britain but rather hugging the coast.
A few of the passengers wave at us cheerfully, but then the boat starts to head back towards the shore.
Image: Sky’s Adam Parsons at the scene
As it nears a different beach, we see a police vehicle – a dune buggy – heading down to meet it.
Normal practice is for French police officers to slice through the material of any of these small boats that end up back on shore.
Two police officers get out of the buggy and wait. A police helicopter arrives and circles above, performing a tight circle over the heads of the migrants.
The police think they might be about to go back on to the beach; in fact, these passengers know that most of them are staying put.
Follow The World
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The boat stops a short distance from the shore and four people jump out. As they wade towards the beach, the boat turns and starts to head back out to sea.
We see the two police officers approach these four men and have a brief conversation.
They don’t appear to check the bags they are carrying and, if they do question them about why they left the boat, it is the most cursory of conversations.
In reality, these people probably don’t speak French but they were almost certainly involved in arranging this crossing, which is against the law. But all four walk away, disappearing into the dunes at the back of the beach.