Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s family tear into gunman who shot dead nine-year-old

The heartbroken family of Olivia Pratt-Korbel today tore into the ‘scum’ gunman who shot her dead and told the killer: ‘This picture will haunt you forever’. 

The nine-year-old’s uncle Peter Korbel shared a photo of Olivia in an emotional tribute posted on Facebook. 

He wrote: ‘Our family will remember this picture of my beautiful niece with happiness and pride… this tiny cheeky little girl with the Korbel attitude thrown in and then some xx but to the scum that’s done this, this picture is going to haunt you for the rest of your days.’

Meanwhile, her cousin Rebecca Louise remembered the nine-year-old as ‘full of sass’ as she vowed the family would do whatever they could to help achieve justice. 

‘I don’t think I or the family will ever find the words to describe the heartache we have all felt in the past 24 hours,’ she told Metro.co.uk.

‘We haven’t just lost ‘Our Liv’, we’ve lost a daughter, a sister, a niece, a cousin and a granddaughter. Our little Liv who was full of life, full of sass and most definitely knew what she wanted in life.

‘You had so much potential and a full life to lead beautifully.

‘I can only apologise for the cruel world we live in and the monsters in it. My heart aches so much and I don’t think we will ever digest what’s happened.

‘We WILL find who did this and we WILL get justice for you baby girl. Lewis & I love you SO much it hurts. Forever 9 years young.’  

Olivia was shot dead when a balaclava-clad thug, chasing another man now identified as career criminal Joseph Nee, 35, barged into her Liverpool home.

Today, there was fury as it emerged the gangster had been released from prison early on licence. He was part of a gang who were jailed for ten years in total for a string of burglaries across North-West England. 

Kieran Mullan, Conservative MP for Crewe and Nantwich, told MailOnline today: ‘The reality is it is a relatively small number of persistent and determined criminals responsible for making the rest of us suffer and, of course, horrendously on this occasion.

‘If early work to get them to turn away from a life of crime doesn’t work, the longer they spend in jail the better for the rest of us.’ 

The Korbel family are entirely innocent and had no connection to the gunman or Nee. 

Nee was part of a gang who were jailed for ten years in total for a string of burglaries across North-West England.

They were only captured following a 125-miles-an-hour police chase through Cheshire and Merseyside. Nee was sentenced to 45 months in prison in 2018 but automatically released on licence last year.

Photographs of a topless Nee in HMP Kirkham, taken in 2019 and understood to have been shared on Instagram by an accomplice, showed him bragging about life behind bars and relaxing alongside fellow prisoners in the warm weather.

Nee, who lives in the Dovecote area of Liverpool, was arrested this morning in hospital, where he is being treated for gunshot wounds, for breaching the terms of his release. He will be sent back to jail to complete his sentence.

The career criminal has spent significant time behind bars for a host of serious crimes including burglary, theft and drugs offences. 

In 2009, Nee was jailed for six and a half years for serving as a ‘trusted foot soldier’ in a drugs gang that help push heroin and crack cocaine onto the streets of Liverpool.

Kieran Mullan, Conservative MP for Crewe and Nantwich, told MailOnline today: ‘The reality is it is a relatively small number of persistent and determined criminals responsible for making the rest of us suffer and, of course, horrendously on this occasion. 

‘If early work to get them to turn away from a life of crime doesn’t work, the longer they spend in jail the better for the rest of us.’

Yesterday the family of little Olivia released a heartfelt tribute to her, praising the ‘beautiful’ schoolgirl’s ‘sass’ and for being ‘full of life’.

Her cousin, Rebecca, promised to get justice for ‘our little Liv’ in online post as she shared her raw outpouring of grief.

She wrote: ‘We haven’t just lost “Our Liv”, we’ve lost a daughter, a sister, a niece, a cousin and a granddaughter. Our little Liv who was full of life, full of sass and most definitely knew what she wanted in life. You had so much potential and a full life to lead beautiful.’

It came as officers launched a series of raids targeting gun-carrying gangsters following three fatal shootings in Liverpool in nine days. 

Today, police confirmed they had arrested a man in his 20s on suspicion of the murder of Sam Rimmer, 22, who was shot dead in Dingle last Tuesday in the first killing involving a firearm on Merseyside for more than a year. 

Days later, on Sunday, council worker Ashley Dale, 28, was shot dead in her home after a man broke in and began spraying bullets ‘indiscriminately’. 

Olivia, meanwhile, is thought to have been the tragic victim of a vicious ‘tit-for-tat’ war among ‘feral’ gangsters in which has gone on for weeks when she was killed by a balaclava-clad gunman who stormed into her house while chasing a suspected rival who saw a ‘chink of light’ inside.

The beloved nine-year-old was senselessly and callously murdered by a masked gunman after Nee – who was completely unknown to her family but known by police as a criminal – broke into her terraced house in Kingsheath Avenue, in the Dovecot area of Liverpool on Monday night, in a bid to get away from a shooter, police said.

Her mother Cheryl Korbel, 46, was shot in the wrist as she tried to close the door on the gunman while Olivia – who was standing behind her – was shot in the chest.