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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Jonathan Humphries & Kate Lally & Adam Everett

Ex-lover tells court she was 'groomed' by Thomas Cashman

A woman who had a sexual relationship with murder accused Thomas Cashman claims he "groomed" her, a court has heard.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, previously claimed to jurors Cashman came to her home on the night Olivia Pratt-Korbel was killed and alleged that he asked her for a change of clothes.

Olivia, niine, died after being shot in the chest in her own home on Kingsheath Avenue in Dovecot on the evening of August 22 last year. Cashman, 34 and of Grenadier Drive in West Derby, denies any involvement in the shooting.

READ MORE: Thomas Cashman trial updates as second week of evidence on Olivia Pratt-Korbel murder

The second week of the trial began this morning (Monday), with the woman providing intimate details of the relationship she had with Cashman. She told John Cooper, KC, defending, they had been friends to begin with before becoming "friends with benefits".

When Mr Cooper put it to her that she wanted to "run away with him to Spain", she said he was "a million per cent wrong". The witness added Cashman "made her feel giddy" but that she "wasn't in love" with him.

She claimed that she and Cashman exchanged intimate images, and that the relationship started with him coming to her house to watch TV. She said Cashman was "always at my address".

The witness later claimed to jurors that she was "groomed", as she told jurors: "On the first occasion it was actually amazing. On the third occasion I did have sex, it lasted about 56 seconds. I was not impressed. I was not impressed when he came up me. I did not want to be pregnant.

“I don’t have intense feelings. He was a good friend to me. I’ve had to do what I’ve had to do for a little girl. I’ve had to go through a lot of pain, a lot. A lot of time to think about what Tommy done and said. I feel I was groomed, I was lied to.”

Mr Cooper repeated: “Groomed?”, to which she replied: “A million percent. A million percent I was groomed”.

Mr Cooper also suggested that the witness was "excited by [Cashman] sexually" and that she was "angry, resentful and vindictive towards him."

The witness replied that she "was not".

As well as denying Olivia's murder, Cashman denies the attempted murder of Nee, as well as wounding Cheryl Korbel with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm. He also pleaded not guilty to two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, namely a 9mm calibre self-loading pistol and a 0.3 calibre revolver.

The jury have been told they must decide on the evidence whether Cashman was the gunman who fired those shots at the three victims.

The trial continues.

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