A police officer who decided not to immediately try and arrest Zak Bolland for threats he made hours before he murdered Michelle Pearson and her family in a petrol bomb attack became emotional in court yesterday (October 12), as she admitted: “I carry that guilt every day.”
Bolland and accomplice David Worrall firebombed the home where Ms Pearson and her five children were living in Walkden at around 5am on Monday, December 11, 2017. The resulting blaze claimed the lives of Ms Pearson’s children Demi, 15; Brandon, eight; Lacie, seven, and Lia, three. Ms Pearson died of her injuries in hospital 20 months later.
999 call hours before attack
An inquest into their deaths at Bolton Coroner’s Court has heard the killings occurred during a ‘tit for tat’ feud involving Bolland and others. A ‘frightened’ Ms Pearson rang 999 at around 12.45am on December 11, after Bolland and three others turned at their terraced housing association home on Jackson Street, the hearing was told.
Bolland, it was heard, threatened to ‘break the jaw’ of Ms Pearson’s then 16-year-old son and ‘boot the door off and do your house’.
PC Gemma Quinn attended the property on Jackson Street at 1.24am on December 11 with a more junior colleague. Ms Pearson told her she was ‘fed up with the whole situation,’ the officer said. She gave a statement, said she would support a prosecution, and indicated she ‘wanted Bolland arrested,’ the hearing was told.
Officer's assessment
However, PC Quinn told the hearing she took the view that it ‘didn’t need to be done immediately’ and planned to try and detain him two days later when she was next on duty. She said that she believed the threats made by Bolland were ‘empty threats.’
Giving evidence via video link on the start of the second week of the inquest, she said: “My assessment, my knowledge of Salford - I had worked in Salford for 14 years - I didn’t believe at the time, with the information that I had at the time, that I needed to do arrest attempts there and then.”
Later, during questioning by coroner Timothy Brennand, she appeared to fight back tears as she said: “In hindsight, to be able to look at this incident, I would have loved to have known the outcome, so I could have tried to stop this.
“But with the information I had…I had no idea it would escalate to the point a family lost children. A mother. Not in my wildest dreams did I think this was going to happen. This incident is with me every day. I carry the guilt every day.”
She said that she asked herself ‘a lot of what-if questions’ but that ‘it’s all in hindsight.’ “Since that job, I have not done frontline policing,” she added.
Questioning over arrest decision
It was put to PC Quinn by Anna Morris KC, representing the family, that it was ‘unlikely’ Ms Pearson would have called the police if she believed the threats were ‘empty.’ “I can’t answer that, I don’t know what Michelle was thinking,” the officer said.
Bolland had earlier been arrested over two incidents, both on November 26, where windows were smashed at the Pearsons’ home, and texts were sent in which Bolland told Ms Pearson: “I am going to petrol bomb your house tonight.” He was interviewed but was released with no further action, the inquest was previously told.
Whilst at Jackson Street, PC Quinn said she noticed a bin had been ‘damaged by fire’ but said Ms Pearson told her she didn’t know who had done that. The word ‘grass’ had also been spray-painted onto the property, but the officer said she ‘didn’t recall’ seeing the graffiti.
PC Quinn accepted that she could have arrested Bolland, who lived 350 yards away, following the December 11 incident, but said she still had tasks relating to it to do.
“It would have been a few minutes journey,” Ms Morris asked the officer. “Just go around the corner to Bolland’s address, to see if he was there?”
“It was not that we had stopped dealing with the job. We had other things to do regarding the job. We had write-ups to do,” the officer said.
“Is writing up more important than arresting the suspect?” Ms Morris asked. “No,” the officer replied.
Ms Morris continued: “The suspect lived a couple of minutes away. Your shift doesn’t finish until 5am. It could’ve happened, couldn’t it?” “It could’ve done, yes,” the officer replied.
Asked by the coroner if she considered ‘driving past Zak’s Bolland house or doing something more’, PC Quinn said: “We didn’t do that. Why we didn’t do that, I don’t know.”
She agreed with the barrister representing her, Sam Green KC, that she had no reason to believe the incident would ‘escalate to murder.’ “Is that normally how these unpleasant grievances finish?” “No,” PC Quinn replied.
The inquest, due to last eight weeks, continues.
