10:36JONATHAN HUMPHRIES
Application begins
Mr Cooper: “This is a renewed application on behalf of the applicant Thomas Cashman following a refusal by a single judge. I hope the court has had our most recent sentencing note..”
He says the Crown responded to the note in writing.
“As the court will know this app was convicted on March 31, 2023, following conviction of all counts on an indictment.”
Mr Cooper reads out the list of offences.
“We have read with interest and assistance some of the recent authorities to the approach they take to this sort of application.”
10:41KEY EVENT
Lack of remorse 'too heavily relied upon'
Mr Cooper: “The aggravating factors were too heavily relied upon to increase the minimum term. In particular the emphasis on planning and surveillance was a relevant factor to take into account of course it was but too much emphasis was placed onto it for its sophistication.”
That increase was too much, given this particular example of planning and preparation. That’s the first matter.”
“The second is the failure to take into account any mitigation since the sentencing exercise we became aware of the authority of Reeves where it seems to that authority a relevant piece of mitigation is the age of that defendant when they will be eligible for release. The essence of it is if a defendant is available for potential release at a senior age that is a potential relevant factor.”
He says Cashman will be in his seventies at the time of his potential release.
Mr Cooper says there was an “overemphasis perhaps on the lack of remorse as far as the offence was concerned. What we mean by that is the court will know the appalling facts behind this tragedy was the chase by the defendant of Joseph Nee the tragic death of Olivia Pratt-Korbel was not intended and there was nothing we submit in the behaviour of this applicant that he had lack of remorse in relation to her death. “
Mr Cooper says the bullet that went through the Korbel door “was not aimed” at Olivia.
JC: “That bullet went through the wrist of the child’s mother, and then into the chest of the child.”
10:47JONATHAN HUMPHRIES
'Notorious'
Mr Cooper: “He did not know this child was standing at the bottom of the stairs when he did the appalling act of firing that gun through the front door.”
“I am aware that the court do not take kindly to a simple comparison of the facts to other cases.”
Mr Cooper said the single judge who refused the written application referred to this case as “notorious”.
“Words such as notorious and other words which I can assure the court have been used about this case”. He says other examples of these kind of cases “contain more obvious levels of graphic intent”.
“The tariff of 43 years in the context of that sort of activity is again we submit to some extent helpful to the court in getting a proportionate response in the application of the minimum term as well as a just response, making it clear on behalf of all of us on behalf of society what the court feel about this sort of behaviour.”
Mr Cooper said the trial judge said she did not take into account the absence of Cashman in her sentencing. However, he says the single judge did take that into account when refusing leave to appeal.
JC: “That refusal in our submission should be corrected and we should be at least given the opportunity to fully argue on appeal.”
Dame Sharp says that it would not follow that leave should be granted due to that factor, as it would depend on the merits of the renewed application.
Cashman was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 42 years in prison before he becomes eligible for parole
www.liverpoolecho.co.uk