A police officer has admitted “nothing” was done to keep a mother and her four children safe in the hours before they were murdered in an arson attack.
At an inquest at Bolton Coroner’s Court, PC Mike Grundy said he did not think there was a “risk of fire” at the home of Michelle Pearson and her four children in Walkden, Salford – despite Zak Bolland having made threats to “petrol bomb” the property.
Four of Michelle’s children were murdered in the arson attack on 11 December 2017; Michelle, 37, died in August 2019, after being badly burned.
Bolland and David Worrall were jailed for life in 2018 for the murder of the four children, and convicted in 2021 of Michelle’s murder.
Bolland was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 40 years, and Worrall was sentenced to life with a minimum of 37 years in jail.
The court previously heard Grundy and PC Gemma Quinn went to the scene in Walkden around 01:25 GMT on 11 December 2017, after Michelle called 999 because Bolland and three others were outside her house.
Bolland had threatened to set fire to the house and smash the windows two weeks earlier, the court had heard.
Grundy told the inquest on Tuesday the police strategy had been to arrest Bolland two days later.
Demi Pearson, 15, her brother Brandon, eight, and sisters Lacie, seven and Lia, three, died at their Walkden home in December 2017.
The inquest, which began on 5 October, is looking at the contact Michelle had with police and social services in the weeks leading up to the fire.
It is scheduled to last for eight weeks.
The inquest continues.