Part of True Crime on Channel 4…
Liverpool, Sunday 21 August 2022. In the early hours of the morning, 28-year-old Ashley Dale is fatally gunned down in her own home. Less than two days later and only two miles away, nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel is shot dead – also at home.
The city is left reeling. The entire nation is stunned.
As the media descends on the city and the community comes together in collective grief, it becomes clear that both Ashley and Olivia are innocent victims, caught in a web of feuding organised crime groups. While the pressure builds on Merseyside Police to find the gunmen, some people are forced to look deep inside themselves – a line has been crossed with these killings – and decide whether or not to talk to the police.
In a city where no-grass culture and the fear of retribution are very real, those who know something face a moral dilemma; do they risk their own lives to come forward and tell the truth?
With exclusive access to Merseyside Police, alongside personal stories from the victims’ families – including both bereaved mothers, who speak in heart-wrenching detail about losing their daughters – this four-part series playing across four consecutive evenings is a powerful story about doing the right thing when tragedy strikes. In the first episode, in the immediate aftermath of the killings of Ashley and Olivia, detectives discover that Ashley’s phone is full of messages and voice notes about her life and the moments leading up to her death.
Could her phone provide the key to why she was killed? In Olivia’s murder investigation, police appeal to the criminal fraternity in Liverpool to give up the killer. Olivia’s mum Cheryl recounts in harrowing detail what happened on the night of the murder, and there’s a revelation about the weapon that Olivia was shot with.
MERSEYSIDE DETECTIVES: THE MURDERS OF ASHLEY AND OLIVIA, CHANNEL 4, 9 pm
