Inquest to be held nearly nine years after arson murders

An inquest is to be held into the deaths of a mother and her four children murdered in an arson attack almost nine years on from the incident.

The blaze in December 2017 claimed the lives of Demi Pearson, 15, her brother Brandon, eight, and sisters Lacie, seven, and Lia, three.

Their mother, Michelle Pearson, suffered 68% burns to her body and "clung on to life" until she died, aged 37, on 25 August, 2019 – 20 months after the attack in Walkden, Greater Manchester.

Timothy Brennand, senior coroner for Manchester West, has set a date of 5 October for the inquest to begin.

Relatives of the family believe their deaths were "wholly preventable", and have raised the question of "missed opportunities" to protect them by state agencies.

Michelle Pearson had "begged" to be rehoused and called police on five occasions in the two weeks before the fatal attack, the trial of her killers heard.

Zak Bolland and David Worrall were jailed for life for the attack in 2018.

After a series of delays following the trial, Brennand set the inquest date in a brief hearing at Bolton Coroners' Court.

The hearing was told the inquest is scheduled to last up to two months with seven police officers individually represented, along with their force Greater Manchester Police (GMP), Salford City Council, two hospital trusts, Wigan Council, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

The IOPC investigated the family's contact with GMP involving incidents and threats from their killers, and a report was completed in 2019, but not made public.

A major safeguarding review has also been undertaken, but not made public.

Bolland and Worrall were both given four life sentences and told they would serve a minimum of 40 and 37 years respectively for the petrol bombing on the Pearson family home on Jackson Street in Walkden in the early hours of 11 December 2017.

Bolland's girlfriend, Courtney Brierley, 20, was jailed for 21 years for four counts of manslaughter.

Bolland was present on a video-link from prison for the hearing today.

Worrall, along with Brierley, no longer want to participate in the inquest, the court heard.

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