Drug dealer who was target of Olivia Pratt-Korbel shooting fined after police find cannabis in underwear

A convicted drug dealer who was the intended target of the shooting which killed nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel has been fined after police found a bag of cannabis in his underwear.

Joseph Nee, 37, ran into Olivia’s home in Dovecot, Liverpool, to try to escape gunman Thomas Cashman, who continued to fire, wounding Olivia’s mother Cheryl and fatally shooting the schoolgirl in August 2022.

Nee appeared before Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday where he was fined £60 for possessing cannabis.

Judge Louise Brandon warned him: “I would keep your nose clean if I were you.”

Nee, wearing a puffa jacket and jeans, pleaded not guilty to assaulting a police officer on July 12 last year, but that case was dropped after it emerged he had already been sentenced for the incident as a breach of a gang injunction made against him.

Zahra Baqri, prosecuting, said the case had been reviewed and it had come to light that Nee had been given a suspended sentence at the county court in relation to the same incident.

She said the Crown would offer no evidence on the charge of assault on an emergency worker and would withdraw a public order offence Nee had also been charged with.

The defendant, who was shot in the midriff by Cashman, asked the judge if he could stand at one point during the hearing, saying he had “pains”.

He appeared to be lifting his T-shirt before Judge Brandon told him: “I don’t need to see it.”

The court heard a bag of cannabis was found within Nee’s underwear after he was taken to a police station and strip-searched on July 12.

He admitted possession of cannabis at an earlier hearing before magistrates.

Ms Baqri said he had five previous convictions for possession of cannabis among a “raft of other offences”.

Louise Santamera, defending, said: “I’d invite your honour to impose a fine given what must have been a relatively small amount.”

Judge Brandon said the offence was aggravated by Nee’s “appalling antecedent record”.

Nee had been at a friend’s watching football on the evening of August 22 2022 and when he left the house Cashman, who had been lying in wait, chased him up Kingsheath Avenue.

Nee was hit when the gunman fired three shots in the road.

When Olivia’s mother opened her front door to see what was happening, Nee ran into the family home.

He was pursued by Cashman, who fired a bullet which went through the front door, through Ms Korbel’s hand and hit Olivia in the chest as she stood behind her mother.

After Cashman fled the scene, Nee managed to get outside the house where he was picked up by associates in a car and taken to Whiston Hospital, while Olivia lay bleeding.

Cashman, 35, who described himself as a “high-level” cannabis dealer, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 42 years after being found guilty of Olivia’s murder, the attempted murder of Nee, the wounding with intent of Ms Korbel, and two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

The trial heard Nee and his family “had their enemies” and there had been an attempt to shoot him two weeks before Olivia’s death, with the same pistol used by Cashman.

The jury heard Nee was also shot at in March 2018, although there was no suggestion Cashman was responsible.

In May last year, Merseyside Police said Nee, from Dovecot, had been made subject to a two-year injunction because of gang-related activity.