Arsonists who killed four young children in petrol bomb house attack are jailed for life for second time over death of youngsters’ mother 20 months after the blaze
- Thugs threw petrol bombs through 37-year-old Michelle Pearson’s window, claiming lives of her four children
- Zak Bolland, 26, and David Worrall, 28, were found guilty of the five murders which had followed a petty feud
- Judge today at Manchester Court sentenced Bolland and Worrall to 40 years and 37 in prison, respectively
- Courtney Brierley previously found guilty of manslaughter with her sentence extended to 12 years in prison
A pair of arsonists who murdered four young children after hurling Molotov cocktails into their home 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 as the blaze tore through the property before being placed in a coma, but passed away in August 2019.
The sickening 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 inferno with a friend.
Zak Bolland, 26, and David Worrall, 28, were found guilty of murdering the mother last month having already been convicted of the four children’s murders in 2018.
They had denied the murder of Mrs Pearson, claiming they had been wrongly convicted of murdering her children.
But today, a judge at Manchester Crown Court sentenced Bolland and Worrall to 40 years and 37 in prison, respectively, for Ms Pearson’s murder. She ruled the sentences will run from today so they will each serve around three extra years in jail.
Mrs Pearson escaped the blaze but was overheard screaming ‘Not the kids! Not my kids!’ as the blaze engulfed the house. She succumbed to her injuries after 20 months in hospital, with her mother writing: ‘Our beautiful Michelle gained her wings and went to join her babies.’
One of the bombs blocked the only exit to the ground floor and trapped the occupants as they lay asleep inside.
Firefighters found eight-year-old 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.
CCTV footage showed the killers laughing and joking as they bought crates of beer and filling up a petrol can at a Texaco fuel station just 20 minutes before arriving at the Pearson home.
In court it emerged Mrs Pearson had called police on at least five occasions in the two weeks before the attack because Zak Bolland was threatening to use fire to harm her family.
Police were called to her house to take a statement on the night of the fire after Bolland had been round ‘kicking off’. It is not clear if officers immediately actively sought out Bolland, who was at home a couple of minutes’ walk away, drinking lager and snorting cocaine.
Two hours later, Bolland returned to her home again, armed with two petrol bombs.
Zak Bolland (pictured left), 26, and David Worrall (centre), 28, have today been jailed for life after they murdered a mother-of-five and her four young children in a petrol bomb house attack. Bolland’s then girlfriend Courtney Brierley was told today her sentence would be extended to 12 years in prison
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 trio were captured on CCTV footage just 20 minutes before the sickening attack, as they bought crates of beer
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
Two of the beer bottles were turned into deadly Molotov cocktails to firebomb the family home. Right, another of the petrol bombs used in the attack which killed four children in their sleep
Killer took part in arson over row with people he didn’t even know
David Worrall was shaking like a leaf when he stepped out of the shower at his mother’s house to find police waiting to arrest him for murder.
The father-of-one had got involved in a fatal arson attack over a row he had no involvement in with people he did not even know.
The 25-year-old told the court during his trial that he knew nothing of a plan to set fire to the house.
He denied prosecution claims that he helped prepare the petrol bombs and that he smashed Michelle Pearson’s kitchen window with an axe to throw in the first petrol bomb.
He told the jury he thought they were going to set fire to the bins. But you do not need a petrol bomb to set fire to bins – and there were no bins at the back of the Mrs Pearson’s house, the jury heard.
Like Bolland, he had been drinking and snorting cocaine that night.
Worrall said he ‘just stood there’ and was ‘dragged along’ by Bolland and ran off when his co-accused smashed the window and lit the first bottle.
In the weeks and months before the fire, Worrall had strangled another friend, pinning his victim to a settee by the throat before hitting a woman friend’s car with a machete.
And twice during rows on Facebook he threatened to ‘blow up’ people’s homes.
He lied to police after his arrest and told officers he was scared of being labelled a ‘grass’.
A police officer responded: ‘What’s being a grass when four kids are dead?’
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.’
Because 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.
Zak Bolland had a history of violence against women and an apparent fixation with fire before he killed four children in a petrol bomb attack.
He stalked the estates around Walkden in a black hoodie, kept a pit bull-type dog, did not have a job but had money for drink and drugs, and habitually carried a large machete with an 18in blade down his tracksuit bottoms, ‘for protection’, the court heard at his trial.
In September 2014 he grabbed a female victim by the hair and dragged her across a street and was convicted of battery.
Two years later he punched another woman, grabbed her throat and threatened her with a hammer. Again he was convicted of battery.
He also made a threat to burn down the house of a relative of the victim.
When a one-time ally, who later became an enemy, came under threat from a notorious Salford gang known as the A Team, Bolland advised him: ‘We should burn them out if they get out of cars, don’t give them a chance, burn them.’
He had known Michelle Pearson since he was six, had been in her home and knew her children.
During previous attacks on her house, and on the night of the fatal fire, he admitted being high on drink and cocaine, which Brierley told the court made him more aggressive and paranoid.
He would carry on arguments through Facebook and text messages, winding himself up as the insults continued.
Bolland thought nothing of calling Mrs Pearson, a mother of six, a ‘rat’ and a ‘scruff’ – or breaking her windows, causing her children to run upstairs in terror.
He showed no emotion in the witness box, except to say he found it difficult to accept ‘what had happened’.
He suggested the fire-bombing was a ‘spur of the moment’ idea thought up by David Worrall – but he had used fire just two days before the fatal attack to torch Mrs Pearson’s wheelie bin.
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.
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.
Timeline: Key events leading up to deaths of four children in house fire
The death of four children was the culmination of a series of tit-for-tat attacks during the “petty” feud between Zak Bolland and Kyle Pearson over a three-week period. Here are the key events:
- November 25, 2017: Zak Bolland’s Peugeot car is set on fire. He claims his house on Blackleach Drive, Walkden was also targeted with petrol but he put out the flames and blames Kyle Pearson. He demands money for the damage, texting Pearson’s mother Michelle Pearson: “Fire letter box I want my £500.”
- November 26: Around 9am Bolland uses a hammer to smash the front windows and panes of glass in the front door of Mrs Pearson’s home at 8 Jackson Street, and she calls police.
- Later that day Kyle Pearson, his brother Lewis, and friends Bobby Harris and Luke Fleming, all armed with clubs and hammers, smash windows at Bolland’s mother’s home. Bolland, Courtney Brierley and his brothers clash with the Pearsons in the street.
- Police attend Mrs Pearson’s home in the evening after Bolland sends a text to Kyle threatening to petrol bomb the house.
- November 28: Fire service attends to fit a letter box cover to 8 Jackson Street, to prevent accelerants being poured inside and set alight.
- December 1: Bolland and Brierley go to the Pearson house, taunting Mrs Pearson that Bolland had been “NFA’d” – escaped police action for breaking her windows – and he makes further threats. She calls police, gives a statement and asks for a restraining order on Bolland.
- December 9: Shortly before 6am Mrs Pearson’s wheelie bin is set on fire and “Grass” spray painted on her house by Bolland. Police attend and she names Bolland as the likely culprit.
- December 10: Bolland and Brierley are joined by David Worrall and others in the evening, buying two cases of Budweiser from a local shop at 10.27pm.
- December 11: At 0.40am Bolland, Worrall and two others go to Jackson Street “kicking off”, bashing the door and Worrall threatening to “Kill ’em all” before returning to Bolland’s house.
- Police attend and take a statement from Mrs Pearson, who wants Bolland arrested, before the officers leave 90 minutes later.
- 3.30am Bolland, Brierley and Worrall buy a case of Stella lager and a bottle of wine from a local garage and return home to Bolland’s house.
- 4.33am Bolland and Worrall pay £1.50 for 1.23 litres of unleaded petrol from a local garage, put in a green petrol can.
- 4.54am Bolland and Worral lift a garden fence panel at the back of 8 Jackson Street. Seconds later the flares of two petrol bombs are caught on a local CCTV camera.
- 5.04am The first of three fire engines arrive and enter the house, which is already well ablaze, to rescue the occupants.
- 5.47am Brandon Pearson declared dead in hospital.
- 6.02am Lacie Pearson declared dead in hospital.
- 7.10am Demi Pearson declared dead at the scene.
- 5.56pm Bolland and Brierley arrested by police.
- December 12: Worrall arrested.
- December 13: Life support turned off for Lia Pearson, aged three, at 2.30pm.
- May 24, 2018: Zak Bolland, 23, his 20-year-old girlfriend Courtney Brierley and David Worrall, 26, were jailed for a total of 98 years.
- August 25, 2019: Michelle Pearson succumbs to her injuries and dies in hospital
- April 21, 2021: The trio are all jailed for a second time over Mrs Pearson’s death
The Pearson house in Walkden, Salford, Greater Manchester is pictured with scaffolding after the fire that killed four children in December 2017
How tragic mother called police five times over threats in the two weeks before her children died
Michelle Pearson had called police on at least five occasions in the two weeks before her children died, as Zak Bolland was threatening to use fire to harm her family.
Her home of 14 years was attacked, its windows and doors smashed, graffiti sprayed on the walls and her wheelie bin set on fire by Bolland.
Each time police attended, each time she named Bolland as the culprit.
She saw at least six different officers, statements were made, risk referral forms completed, fire service personnel carried out two ‘safe and well’ visits, the family social worker was informed, social services alerted and she begged her landlord, housing association City West, to move her.
On one occasion police even went as far as arresting Zak Bolland.
On two other occasions, after he set her bin on fire two days before the fatal fire, and banged on her door threatening to ‘kill ’em all’ four hours before he torched the house, he was not held by police.
Bolland lived just over 300 yards from Mrs Pearson’s home.
Mrs Pearson, 36, told police she was willing to go to court to support Bolland’s prosecution when he first smashed her windows, and made a statement to that effect.
But after Bolland sent a text threatening to petrol bomb her home, two weeks before the fatal fire, she called police again and this time she told officers she suffered from anxiety and did not wish to attend court and asked about a restraining order.
Another officer explained she would not have to go to court in person, a statement would do, but due to an ‘apparent misunderstanding’ a decision was taken for Bolland to be ‘NFA’d’ – no further action – for smashing her windows.
She only found out when he came to her home gloating and calling her a ‘Grass’ and a ‘Rat’ and the decision left her ‘horrified’.
Mrs Pearson told her ‘useless’ housing provider, City West, she did not feel safe at home with five children and wanted out.
City West said they never received any request for a move, believed to have been handled by Salford City Council who said, ‘no comment’, but that a Serious Case Review was under way.
Police were at Mrs Pearson’s house to take a statement on the night of the fire after Bolland had been round ‘kicking off’. Mrs Pearson was described as being ‘fed up, angry, miffed off’.
It is not clear if officers immediately actively sought out Bolland, who was at home at the time, a couple of minutes’ walk away, drinking lager and snorting cocaine.
Two hours after police had taken another statement from Mrs Pearson and left her home, Bolland returned to Jackson Street again, armed with two petrol bombs.
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