Support workers feared the Pearson family were at 'risk of significant and imminent harm' in the days before mum Michelle and four of her children were murdered in an arson attack at their Salford home, an inquest has heard.
Demi, 14; Brandon, eight; Lacie, seven; and Lia, three were killed after petrol bombs were thrown at their home on Jackson Street, Walkden, in the early hours of December 11, 2017. Michelle died almost two years later aged 37 after suffering severe burns.
A joint inquest into their deaths is ongoing at Bolton coroners' court. On Tuesday the hearing was told how staff from voluntary support network DISC, who were working with the Pearson family, had raised serious concerns about their safety.
Email raised 'two particular concerns'
The inquest heard how DISC service manager Cathy Unsworth emailed Lindsay Barrett, safeguarding lead for housing at Salford council, in late November 2017. Giving evidence, Ms Barrett said the email raised 'two particular concerns'.
"One was information being shared by [Michelle's eldest son] Kyle about threats from the A Team and that Demi had been chased by a group of girls and the second was a threat was being made by Zak Bolland to Michelle to pay money for damage to a car and if that wasn't paid he threatened to petrol bomb the house," she said.
The inquest had previously heard Kyle was 'at risk from a local gang', said to be Salford's organised crime group the A-Team. Last week the court heard that Ms Pearson told police she believed members of the gang had driven by her home a month before the firebomb attack. However Greater Manchester Police said no intelligence was logged as there was 'no evidence to substantiate' the mother's fears.
Escalation of child protection plan
The inquest heard how Ms Unsworth's email concluded: "We remain extremely concerned the family are at risk of imminent and significant harm." Ms Barrett said she forwarded the email to GMP detective Thomas Willis, from Project Gulf, an operation targeting organised crime in Salford, and later spoke to him over the phone. She said DC Willis told her he wasn't aware of the Pearson family, but would assign an officer to look into the matter.
A pre-arranged child protection conference to discuss the Pearson family was held on December 8. The children were already under child and young person protection plans, but at the meeting it was decided the threats meant the approach had to be 'escalated' and that the family needed to be moved, social worker Lisa Hughes, who chaired the conference, said.
"The plan wasn't keeping anyone safe, it wasn't keeping the children safe, so we started our escalation process," she told the inquest.
Concerns over family's safety
Following the meeting Mrs Hughes sent an email to her manager and the heads of Salford social services saying she was 'extremely worried about the risk to the children'. Lisa Nash, counsel to the inquest, asked Mrs Hughes: "You were really concerned about this family?"
"Yes, I was," Mrs Hughes replied. Christian Weaver, counsel for the Pearson family, asked Mrs Hughes: "Was it your view the family needed to be moved immediately?"
"No," she replied. "We didn't have enough evidence to remove the children that day as an immediate removal."
Mrs Hughes also told the inquest that Michelle Pearson was reluctant to move home because she wanted to 'be around her family, she wanted to keep consistency with the children's schools and it was a community she was familiar with'.
However, the inquest heard, it was anticipated that the family would have been evicted in the coming weeks and months due to the ongoing incidents at the home.
Coroner Timothy Brennand said: "We have heard from other witnesses Michelle Pearson liked living at Jackson Street. Life wasn't without its difficulties, but it was a big deal to contemplate leaving after 13 years. That sentiment meant that her reconciliation to a move, however, was a very problematic situation."
In the weeks before the arson attack DISC had suspended visits to the Pearson home due to concerns around 'gang activity' and young people frequenting the property. Ms Nash asked Mrs Hughes how 'unusual' that was. "It's unusual," she replied.
On December 9, the day after the child protection conference, a wheelie bin was set alight at the Pearson home and the word 'Grass' was graffitied on the property. There was also an earlier threat made to petrol-bomb the property.
The inquest has previously heard that a 'tit-for-tat feud' ended when the house was petrol-bombed by Zak Bolland and his accomplice, David Worrall. In 2018, 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. Bolland's then girlfriend, Courtney Brierley, was jailed for 21 years for four counts of manslaughter.
