Walkden fire: Men guilty of murdering mother in house blaze

Lia, Demi, Brandon, Lacie and their mother Michelle Pearson were sleeping when the fire broke out

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

Michelle Pearson, 37, was seriously injured in a petrol bomb blaze at the house in Walkden, Greater Manchester, in December 2017.

Zak Bolland, 26, and David Worrall, 28, were convicted of murdering her four children at an earlier trial.

The pair will be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on 21 April.

Courtney Brierley, 23, who was Bolland's girlfriend at the time of the attack, will be sentenced at the same hearing after previously pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Mrs Pearson.

• Men jailed for murdering children in fire

• Mother dies 20 months after arson attack

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.

Zak Bolland (left) and David Worrall have been found guilty of murder

The pair smashed a kitchen window and threw two petrol bombs inside, 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.

Her eldest son, Kyle, 16, managed to escape the fire through a window.

The court heard how Mrs Pearson "clung on to life" after suffering 68% burns to her body in the blaze.

Four months later, she came out of a coma and was informed of her children's deaths. She died on 25 August 2019.

Courtney Brierley will also be sentenced for her involvement in the attack

Bolland and Worrall were previously jailed for life with a minimum term of 40 years and 37 years respectively for the murder of Mrs Pearson's four children.

Brierley was sentenced to 21 years for their manslaughter.

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