On 21 August 2022, a young woman named Ashley Dale was gunned down by a Skorpion submachine gun when a drug dealer forced his way into her home. Less than 48 hours later, nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel was shot dead when a gunman forced his way into her family’s home.

As police began their investigations, it wasn’t long before they came to believe that both murders involved people thought to be linked to the same organised crime group in Liverpool. 

Now, Channel 4’s new four-part docuseries, Merseyside Detectives: The Murders Of Ashley And Olivia, will follow Detective Superintendent Mark Baker and Detective Chief Inspector Cath Cummings as they set to work trying to bring Olivia and Ashley’s killers to justice.

Speaking to Broadcast about the project, Channel 4’s Sacha Mirzoeff says: “This is the highly sensitive inside story of how the police investigating teams go about their work while the families tell their side of the story from within the Merseyside community.

“Together they make a heart-rending, compulsive series that has been handled with compassion and aplomb by the LA Productions team.”

As well as offering viewers exclusive access to the inner workings of Merseyside Police, Ashley and Olivia’s families are also given the chance to speak about their lost loved ones during the documentary.

“It was a very, very, very hard watch but I’m glad it’s been done,” says Ashley’s mother, Julie Dale, during a recent appearance on BBC Breakfast.

“I’m glad we were able to have a part of it and give Ashley a voice, and also to tell our story and come into our home and see us as a family and how this has affected us, what this does to you, how it affects every aspect of your life.”

Separate trials took place to convict those involved in the murders of both Ashley and Olivia, with multiple men convicted. 

The fly-on-the-wall documentary will explore both the trials and their long-reaching impact, paying particular attention to the new law introduced after a campaign by Olivia’s mother, Cheryl Korbel, which grants judges the power to force killers to attend sentencing hearings in court.

“At the end of the day, it’s in [Olivia’s] name, it’s why we’ve done this,” she told ITV News. “And not only in her name, it’s for every other family out there that has gone through it.”

Merseyside Detectives: The Murders Of Ashley And Olivia airs on 19 August, at 21:00 BST on Channel 4 and All 4.

Images: Channel 4