A pair of arsonists who killed four young children in a petrol bomb house attack have been jailed for life for a second time after the siblings’ mother died 20 months after the blaze.
Michelle Pearson, 37, suffered 75 per cent burns after two thugs threw petrol bombs through the window of her house in Walkden, Salford, in December 2017.
She was rescued from the home on Jackson Street before being placed in a coma, but passed away in August 2019.
The horrific attack, which also claimed the lives of her children Demi, 15, Brandon, eight, Lacie, seven and Lia, three, came after a petty feud between the attackers and the children’s older brother Kyle, 16, who escaped the flames with a friend.
Zak Bolland, 26, and David Worrall, 28, were found guilty of murdering the mother last month and were convicted of the four children’s murders in 2018.
Today, a judge a Manchester Crown Court again sentenced Bolland and Worrall to 40 years and 37 in prison, respectively, for Ms Pearson’s murder. But she said the sentences would begin from today – extending their time behind bars.
Michelle Pearson (pictured left, before the attack and right, in hospital), 37, suffered 75 per cent burns after two thugs threw petrol bombs through the window of her house in Walkden, Salford, in December 2017
The horrific attack, which also claimed the lives of Ms Pearson’s children Demi, 15, Brandon (left), eight, Lacie (centre), seven and Lia (right), three, came after a petty feud between the attackers and the children’s older brother
CCTV footage shows the house explode into flames after petrol bombs were thrown through the windows in December 2017
Bolland’s then girlfriend Courtney Brierley, 23, pleaded guilty to Mrs Pearson’s manslaughter earlier this year.
The trio had already been convicted in 2018 over the deaths of Mrs Pearson’s children.
Bolland was found guilty four counts of murder and three of attempted murder while Worrall was convicted of four murders and three counts of attempted GBH.
Both were given life sentences, with minimum terms of 40 and 37 years respectively. Brierley was told today her sentence would be extended to 12 years in prison.
In a heartbreaking victim impact statement read to the court, Mrs Pearson’s brother Chris Pearson described the impact the five deaths had had on their family.
He also described the many months of suffering she spent in hospital due her injuries and how the family had been forced to break the news that four of her children had died in the fire.
A typical day would her involve her ‘crying in pain’ and grieving the loss of her children, he said.
She would repeatedly ask ‘where are my kids?’ or if they’d died in an accident because she couldn’t recall previous conversations.
After learning what happened, she would get upset and distressed and tell nurses: ‘He killed my kids, he killed my babies.’
As she’d been too ill to attend the children’s funeral another ceremony was held in hospital. But she was so devastated by their loss, ‘she wanted to die, she couldn’t live without her children.’
CCTV images captured Bolland and Worrall filling up a petrol can at a Texaco fuel station before arriving at the Pearson home in Walkden, Greater Manchester.
They were joined by Brierley and all three made petrol bombs at a nearby address.
The two men then removed a fence panel from the garden, smashed a kitchen window and tossed in two lit petrol bombs, while Brierley waited in a car.
One bomb landed near the stairs, blocking the only exit to the ground floor and trapped the occupants as they lay asleep inside.
Kyle managed to escape from an upstairs window but his four siblings, who were sleeping in a front bedroom, perished in the flames.
Younger sister Lia, aged three, was rescued from the house but died in hospital two days later.
Mrs Pearson, who was sleeping in the same room as Lia, escaped the blaze but was overheard screaming ‘Not the kids! Not my kids!’ as the fire engulfed the three bedroom mid-terrace house.
CCTV previously shown to the jury showed Bolland and Worrall at the address at 4.55am for one minute and five seconds.
Demi Pearson (left) and Lia Pearson (right) died in the arson attack in Greater Manchester
Michelle’s mother Sandra announecd the news of her death on social media when she died in August 2019
Michelle Pearson, 37, was seen from her hospital bed releasing balloons in honour of Demi, 15, Brandon, eight, and his sisters, Lacie, seven, and Lia, three, who were killed in the house fire in December 2017
The cameras recorded a flash then a larger second one from the petrol bombs, before they fled.
Neighbours ran out to help but were beaten back by the heat and flames as multiple 999 calls were made.
Three fire engines scrambled to the scene, the first arriving at 5.04am, with firefighters discovering Brandon face down on his bedroom floor, as if trying to crawl out, and Lacie directly behind him, suggesting she was following her brother to try to escape.
Regarding Ms Pearson’s death, both Bolland and Worrall had previously pleaded not guilty to murder, claiming they had been wrongly convicted of murdering her children, but admitted manslaughter.
Jurors then delivered their guilty verdicts earlier this year following a three-week trial at Manchester Crown Court.
Both Bolland and Worrall’s lawyers argued that it was unnecessary to increase their minimum terms.
Bolland’s QC Mark Ford said he’d tried to take his life four times while in prison and extending his term was ‘unnecessary and undesirable’.
Benjamin Myers QC, defending Worrall, said the previous sentence ‘reflected his criminality’.
But sentencing the trio, judge Mrs Justice McGowan said Mrs Pearson experienced ‘unimaginable suffering’ – both physically and mentally – due to her ‘appalling grief’.
She described it as a ‘distress that cannot be imagined’
The judge rejected arguments that Bolland and Worrall’s tariffs should not be increased, saying: ‘The public must see that there is a consequence of these convictions.’
She said time between Bolland and Worrall’s first sentencing and now would not count towards their overall terms and their sentences for 40 years and 37 years, respectively, would start form today.
Brierley was in a ‘different position’ as she had pleaded guilty and new legislation meant she would now serve 12 years in prison.
The Pearson house in Walkden, Salford, Greater Manchester is pictured with scaffolding after the fire that killed four children in December 2017
Giving a statement afterwards on behalf of Mrs Pearson’s mother Sandra Lever, Detective Chief Inspector Cheryl Chatterton, from Greater Manchester Police’s Major Investigation Team, said: ‘We are still trying to come to terms with how they were cruelly taken away from us.
‘A whole family has been torn apart and destroyed in one night.
‘Nothing will ever bring them back and my family will never be the same again.
‘Losing Michelle and the children is still very raw. We are still struggling to come to terms with losing them, especially the way in which they died.’
She added that the sentences handed out ‘would never be enough’ and her family ‘will never be the same again’ while their killers had shown no remorse.