Walkden fire: Child-killers sentenced for murdering mum

Two men have been sentenced for murdering a mother who died almost two years after an arson attack that also killed four of her children.

Michelle Pearson, 37, died 20 months after a petrol bomb attack on home in Walkden, Greater Manchester, in December 2017.

Zak Bolland, 26, and David Worrall, 28, were found guilty of her murder at Manchester Crown Court.

They were previously jailed for murdering her four children.

Courtney Brierley, 23, admitted the manslaughter of Mrs Pearson and was sentenced to 12 years in jail.

Bolland and Worrall were jailed for 40 years and 37 years respectively on Wednesday.

In 2018, the pair were handed the same jail sentences, 40 and 37 years, for the murder of Mrs Pearson's four children.

The judge, Mrs Justice McGowan, said: "I must mark the fifth death you caused.

"The least I can do to balance all the factors outlined is to impose the same minimum terms as imposed in May of 2018, but to order that those terms commence today."

Jurors were told the fatal fire was the culmination of a series of tit-for-tat attacks, with Bolland and Worrall involved in a feud with Mrs Pearson's son Kyle.

The pair threw two petrol bombs inside the home, trapping the family upstairs, while Brierley waited in a nearby car.

Police said the fire spread so quickly that the smoke alarms melted before they even had a chance to sound.

Demi Pearson, 15, eight-year-old Brandon and Lacie, seven, died at the scene while Mrs Pearson was rescued along with her three-year-old daughter Lia, who died in hospital two days later.

The court heard Kyle, 16, managed to escape the blaze through a window.

The court heard how Mrs Pearson "clung on to life" after suffering 68% burns to her body in the blaze, before she died on 25 August 2019.

In a statement read outside court, the family said they have been "torn apart and destroyed in one night".

"Michelle had so much more to give to this world and the children had a full life ahead of them," they added.

The family said losing five loved ones was "unbearable".

"We are all utterly heartbroken and forever will be," they said.

Bolland and Worrall had denied the murder of Mrs Pearson, claiming they had been wrongly convicted of murdering her children.

Brierley was Bolland's girlfriend at the time of the attack and "encouraged or assisted them", the court heard.

At the first trial, she was convicted of four counts of manslaughter and jailed for 21 years.

On Wednesday, she was told she would serve a 12-year sentence to run concurrently.

Det Ch Insp Cheryl Chatterton said described Mrs Pearson's death as "devastating".

"All of our thoughts are with the family who have been through such a difficult time and have had to sit through two trials and listen to details on what was a horrific and planned attack," she added.

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