Two men have been convicted of murdering four children after they threw petrol bombs through the window of a family home as part of an ongoing feud with the victims’ older brother.
Zak Bolland, 23, and David Worrall, 25, were each convicted of four counts of murder at Manchester crown court on Thursday.
The trial heard that at about 5am on 11 December, the men removed a fence panel from the garden of the mid-terrace house, smashed a kitchen window and threw in two lit petrol bombs.
The fire spread to block the only exit from the first floor to the ground floor as the Pearson family slept upstairs. Demi Pearson, 15, her brother Brandon, eight, and sister Lacie, seven, who were sleeping in a front bedroom, died in the blaze. Their youngest sister Lia, three, died in hospital two days later.
The victims’ brother, Kyle Pearson, 17, and his friend escaped the fire. The children’s mother, Michelle Pearson, 36, was seriously injured and has only recently recovered enough to be told of the death of her children.
Bolland’s girlfriend, Courtney Brierley, 20, was accused of encouraging and assisting the two men with their crimes. She was found guilty of four counts of manslaughter.
The jury was told of at least five occasions when Michelle Pearson called the police in the two weeks leading up to the attack, as an argument raged between her son Kyle and Bolland. The prosecution said “tit-for-tat attacks” resulted in her windows being smashed and a wheelie bin outside her house being set on fire.
The dispute started when Bolland accused Kyle of setting fire to his Ford Focus on 25 November. In a message sent to Michelle Pearson phone, Bolland demanded £500 payment for the destruction of his car, writing: “Fire letter box I want my 500.”
Paul Reid QC, prosecuting, said that after receiving a threat from Bolland on 26 November that he was going to “finish her house off”, Michelle Pearson drilled her letterbox shut “for fear that her house might be further damaged”.
Two days later, after a referral by police, the fire service fitted a letterbox cover to prevent accelerants such as petrol from being poured through the door.
In a statement to police on 1 December, which was read to the jury, Pearson said she was scared of Bolland. “He’s smashed all of my windows. I know he’s capable of hurting me and damaging my property,” she said. Pearson said she wanted her housing association, City West, to allow her to move house, and she asked police for a restraining order against Bolland.
An investigation of Greater Manchester police (GMP) by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) was suspended pending the outcome of the trial.
In court, Brierley portrayed herself as a victim of domestic violence and claimed she had been ignorant of her boyfriend’s plans to firebomb the Pearson household. Worrall told the jury he had known nothing of a plan to set fire to the house, claiming instead he had thought the pair were going to set fire to the bins.
The jury was told that Bolland had a history of violence against women and an apparent fixation with fire. He had known Michelle Pearson since he was six, had been in her home and knew her children.
After his arrest he wrote to Brierley five times from prison, telling her he loved her and asking her to back up his claim that he had thought the house was empty. She did not reply.
The trio will be sentenced later on Thursday.