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Defendants who refuse to appear in court for sentencing are giving a “final insult to victims and their families”, the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has said, as an impact statement from the mother of a murdered girl was read to MPs.
During the second reading of the victims and courts bill, the Labour MP Anneliese Midgley read a statement on behalf of Cheryl Korbel, the mother of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, who was shot dead in her Liverpool home in 2022.
Her killer, Thomas Cashman, refused to attend his sentencing. “These are the words Thomas Cashman refused to hear,” Midgley said. “Let them ring out in this chamber, as they should have in Thomas Cashman’s ears that day.”
In the statement, read aloud in the Commons with Korbel present in the public gallery and in tears, she recalled the moment she realised Olivia had been shot: “I was not able to do CPR properly on her because of my injury … I felt helpless. It was only then my neighbour came in and tried all he could to save my baby.”
Cashman, who killed Olivia as he chased a drug dealer who had tried to run into her home in Knotty Ash, Liverpool, did not appear in court to hear his life sentence in April 2023.
Korbel’s statement described the pain of being separated from her daughter in the final moments of her life: “I was the first person to hold my baby girl – and as her mum I should have been the last.”
Proposed legislation backed by the government, referred to as Olivia’s law, would give judges the power to impose up to two additional years in prison on convicted offenders who refuse to attend sentencing. Courts could also strip prisoners of privileges, including visitation rights, extra gym time or access to communal areas.
Mahmood said: “When a guilty defendant fails to show up to hear how their crime has shattered lives, it is a final insult to victims and their families, because it robs them of the chance to tell offenders through victim impact statements the pain they have caused.”
Korbel described the anguish of living without her daughter: “It’s so very lonely without her. Everything is just so quiet … I just can’t cope with the silence. The day gets to half two and I think about the school pickup – something I will never get to do again as a mum.”
Midgley praised Korbel’s determination to fight for change: “Nothing in this world can bring Olivia back. But instead of collapsing under this weight, Cheryl fought back … Olivia’s law is her work. It is Olivia’s legacy. It is Cheryl’s legacy.”
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Keir Starmer has said he will carry through the proposed legal change after meeting Korbel – continuing a promise made by his predecessor, Rishi Sunak. The bill is expected to move forward with broad support in the coming weeks.
Mahmood said the bill “marks an important step forward in our mission to rebuild our justice system, so that it serves the victims who, in recent years, it has all too often failed”.
The shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, said the government should “enact the most radical and serious changes” in an effort “to rebalance the criminal justice system in the favour of victims”.
