Tragic Olivia Pratt-Korbel's memorial goes up in flames as mum blames children (2025)

Olivia's senseless murder shocked the nation when she was shot in her own home in a botched gangland hit after the intended target burst into her home to flee the gunman

The mum of Olivia Pratt-Korbel has been left heartbroken after a memorial garden in honour of the murdered schoolgirl was burned to the ground.

The area, established by mum Cheryl after tragic Olivia was killed in her own home, was wrecked after nearby barriers were set ablaze by vandals. Olivia, nine, was killed when gunman Thomas Cashman burst into her home in Dovecot, Liverpool, and opened fire in a botched gangland hit that shocked the nation in August 2022.

Cashman – serving life for the youngster's murder – was trying to ambush fellow criminal Joseph Nee and shit blindly through the door after his target forced his way into Olivia's house to escape.

The playground was created close to Olivia's family home after her death to help other children in the area in her memory.

But it emerged on Friday that it has been partly destroyed after kids playing with fire sparked a blaze earlier this week, the Liverpool Echo reports.

The Olivia's Butterfly Foundation, established by Cheryl's cousin Rebecca Louise, posted a video of the damage on Facebook.

It said equipment belonging to local civil engineering and highways infrastructure company HA Civils was set alight. The materials were set to be used as part of their work with the foundation to transform the land for children in the area.

Organisers added: “Unfortunately, this is the aftermath of children playing with fire on the Finch Lane land where Olivia’s memorial tree sits.

“This equipment belongs to HA Civils, a local company who, out of the kindness of their own hearts, are actually helping us develop that land which will in turn benefit the local children and our community.

“We are extremely disappointed and it breaks our hearts to see a local firm lose out on so much financially and our land destroyed.

“This sets us back with our plans but somehow doesn’t put us off, we will come back from this and continue with our plans to create a better space for the area.

“We need to educate our children on the dangers of playing with fire whether done intentionally or not and most certainly on the consequences of doing so. This could have been so much worse as so many other things/people could have been affected."

The charity added: "We understand everyone’s disgust, what we don’t want is the spread of abuse towards anyone. The children who did it will face the repercussions and will hopefully realise that what they did was wrong.

"Thank you so much for everyone’s messages of support, as we always have and always will, we will come back from this."

Merseyside Police is investigating the fire, which was started on April 16.

Olivia had been stood behind her mum Cheryl Korbel when drug lord Cashman, 34, blindly fired through the front door in the botched gang hit.

His bullet missed intended hit Joseph Nee and instead passed through Cheryl's hand into the middle of Olivia's chest.

Just minutes earlier, she had run terrified from her bedroom after hearing the commotion, screaming: "Mum, I'm scared".

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