Following the refusal of Thomas Cashman to face Olivia Pratt-Korbel's family after being found guilty of the nine-year old's murder, there's been calls to alter the law. Families are currently being deprived the opportunity of gaining full closure as offenders can choose not to appear in court for sentencing.
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00:00 Thomas Cashman was jailed for 42 years for the murder of nine-year-old Olivia
00:04 at her home in Dovecote. However, instead of facing up to the pain he'd inflicted
00:10 on her family, Cashman hid away in his cell refusing to attend his hearing at
00:15 Manchester Crown Court. That behaviour has prompted an increase in calls to make
00:20 the appearance of convicted criminals mandatory at all future sentencing
00:25 hearings.
00:26 Writing the impact statement was really hard. It wasn't, didn't take minutes. It was
00:37 days over a matter of weeks and it's important for the offenders to listen to
00:45 the pain that they've caused, the pain that is ongoing. Going to prison is
00:53 supposed to be a rehabilitation. That first port of call of rehabilitation
01:00 should be in that courtroom and standing there listening to the judge and
01:07 listening to the family's impact statement. The launch of a campaign and
01:12 government petition by local station Radio City received backing from across
01:17 the Labour Party including Shadow Justice Secretary Steve Reid and London
01:23 Mayor Sadiq Khan as well as from local MPs right across the region.
01:27 When you go through a hugely dramatic a deal like Cheryl and so many of the
01:32 victims' families have, to then have to sit day after day to watch the trial of
01:38 this person that killed your loved one take place and then for them to not turn
01:42 up the one day when you have the time to tell that person the impact that that has
01:48 had and that is an important part of that process where the victims and the
01:52 families get to talk about the impact it's had on them you know and what this
01:57 means for them and the life sentence they're gonna have because their
01:59 daughter's no longer with them. The fact that somebody can take that power away
02:03 from that family and not turn up and hear that is just wrong.
02:07 They're facing the families in court won't bring back the victims of these
02:11 senseless crimes not being present when victim impact statements are read out
02:15 denies those affected a measure of closure. I think the whole point of the
02:20 face of family campaign and you know when I speak to Cheryl and others about
02:23 it it's about saying you've committed you've taken something away from me you
02:27 should listen you should listen and hear about what impact that's had on me and
02:31 the justice system is such a long and complicated system we don't make it
02:36 straightforward at all and this is one small part of it that would just give
02:40 the families that opportunity to feel like they've been heard and to feel like
02:44 their pain and their suffering has been recognized. It's also important to
02:48 remember those whose lives have been cruelly cut short by murder not for how
02:52 they died but for how they lived like Olivia who by all accounts was a chatty
02:59 lively little girl who just loved the color pink.