The Archdiocese of Liverpool has said it is “shocked and saddened to hear the tragic news” of the fatal shooting of a nine-year-old Liverpool Catholic school pupil on the night of 22 August.
Olivia Pratt-Korbel was shot in the chest as her mother struggled with men at the door of her house in the Dovecot area of the city. “Olivia was a member of our school community and our thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends, classmates, teachers and local community,” said an archdiocesan representative.
Head teacher Rebecca Wilkinson said St Margaret Mary’s Catholic junior school in Huyton, where Olivia was a pupil, was in “shock and disbelief”. She described Olivia as “a little ray of sunshine” and “a lively little soul who was very, very popular with all her peers”.
Olivia had recently participated in school production of The Wizard of Oz. Ms Wilkinson said the staff are “devastated” and “can’t imagine how the children are going to feel when they come back to school and she’s no longer here”.
The gunman had chased 35-year-old convicted criminal Joseph Nee into Olivia’s family home after her mother opened her front door in response to a commotion outside. The men – complete strangers to the family – burst in and Olivia was fatally shot.
Olivia’s mother and Nee were injured. Olivia was taken to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital by officers but later died. Flowers soon built up at the scene, with a card on the floral tribute from Liverpool FC saying: "Rest in peace Olivia, with deepest sympathy from all of us at Liverpool Football Club. You'll never walk alone."
The killing has stunned Merseyside. Police urged anyone with information on the killing to come forward, saying “silence is not an option”, releasing a video appeal yesterday. Police have bailed two local men, aged 36 and 33, arrested on 26 August on suspicion of murdering Olivia. Olivia's was the third family to lose someone to gun crime in Merseyside last week.
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