An inquest has heard that a car containing members of Salford's A-Team gang drove by the Walkden home Michelle Pearson and her children shared a month before a fatal petrol bomb attack claimed their lives.
Four of her children - Demi, 15; Brandon, eight; Lacie, seven, and Lia, three - died in the attack carried out by Zak Bolland and David Worrall at around 5am on Monday, December 11, 2017. Ms Pearson died of her injuries in hospital 20 months later.
An inquest into their deaths at Bolton Coroners' Court has heard how Ms Pearson's 16-year-old son, Kyle, was involved in a tit-for-tat feud involving Bolland and others.
Concerns raised weeks before attack
Today (October 14), the court was told Kyle raised concerns over a possible threat posed by the infamous A-Team gang weeks before Bolland and Worrall's attack. Ms Pearson had also reported threats from Bolland, who had demanded £500 from Kyle over a damaged vehicle.
During a visit to the family home by the Safeguarding Unit of Greater Manchester Police on November 28, 2017, the court heard how Ms Pearson also told officers she believed someone had phoned the A-Team and four males had driven past the house in a Silver Renault Clio.
In the same visit, Kyle told police he believed he was under threat from the A-Team because of his links to his friend Luke Fleming, who had been involved in a recent stabbing and had "money on his head".
The inquest heard Kyle expressed concerns that he and his family were going to get hurt, referencing a recent shooting where gang members "shot a lad's mam and someone in the garden not long ago".
But the court heard no intelligence was logged regarding these claims as there was "no evidence to substantiate" them, the inquest heard.
Police response and safeguarding measures
Detective Sergeant Alison Barber of GMP's safeguarding unit told the inquest she was only made aware of these incidents after the attack. She said her team "wouldn't have ignored the reference to A-Team and risk from them" made by Kyle, but added officers often had reports from young people "claiming allegiance to the A-Team or Anti A-Team" with "no actual association".
DS Barber, who was Detective Inspector at the time, told the inquest her safeguarding unit team was specifically involved in looking at the risk of harm to members of crime gangs and their families when "threat to life" warnings had been given.
Bolland, she said, had not been handed a warning or disruption notice and was only known to the team due to a "tentative" link with Operation Overspill - an investigation into "firearm discharges and threats and damage" between rival gangs, the inquest heard.
Due to the earlier incidents on November 26, safeguarding measures were already in place for the Pearson family, including a fire risk assessment, target hardening, and child protection plans for some of Ms Pearson's children, among referrals to relevant partner agencies.
No threat to life assessment
No "threat to life" assessment was made relating to the Pearson family, DS Barber told the inquest. She said this was because there was "nothing new arising from the visit" by two police constables on November 28.
"There was no formal recorded threat to life assessment," she said. "If the officers would have come back with concerns I would have raised that."
If an assessment had been done on November 28, DS Barber said the threat to the family would "most likely" have been deemed a "low risk".
"At that time, with the information that I had, there would have been a threat to life, but it would have been a low risk," she told the inquest. "It would have been exactly the same as the safeguarding measures already in place."
Events leading up to the attack
Zak Bolland had previously been arrested following incidents at the family home on November 26, 2017, when windows were smashed. He sent Ms Pearson a text message threatening to petrol bomb the house.
Ms Pearson called police five times in the two weeks leading up to the attack on December 11, 2017, the inquest previously heard. Bolland had been interviewed following the November 26 incidents but released with no further action.
The inquest also heard that two intelligence reports were received by the safeguarding unit on the Friday (December 8, 2017) before the fatal attack, but not picked up and reviewed by officers.
The first stated that Kyle claimed his brother assaulted members of A Team with weapons after five unknown males attended the home two weeks prior, but were scared off. The second intelligence report, received at 2.56pm, said Kyle is being "sought by the A Team due to money for drugs," with concerns for the four younger children at the property.
DS Barber said she "didn't remember receiving that intel report", adding that intelligence received on a Friday would typically have been reviewed on the following Monday, "which unfortunately would have been after the fire," she said.
On December 9, two days before the fatal attack, Ms Pearson had called police again when her wheelie bin was set on fire and "Grass" spray painted on her home.
The inquest heard on Wednesday that Bolland believed Kyle, who was 16 at the time, was involved in damage to his car alongside his friend Luke Fleming. Bolland wanted £500 from Kyle because he "didn't stop" Fleming, the inquest heard.
Details read to the court from an email thread between police officers after the attack stated Ms Pearson had previously told officers Bolland had sent her "threatening and abusive" text messages regarding the dispute.
In the early hours of Monday, December 11, Bolland and accomplice David Worrall firebombed the home where Ms Pearson and her five children were living in Walkden.
Around 12.40am that morning, Bolland and others had damaged Ms Pearson's home again and threatened to 'do the house', prompting her to call police. PC Grundy and colleague PC Gemma Quinn, who previously gave evidence at the inquest, took a statement from her and left the property at around 3.20am.
But they went back to the station to do the paperwork and did not go to arrest Bolland immediately. He is understood to have been at his home at the time, around 350 yards away.
Bolland returned to Jackson Street just before 5am with Worrall, 28. They smashed Ms Pearson's windows at the back of the house and tossed in petrol bombs. One "exploded" near the stairs, blocking the only exit to the ground floor and trapping the family inside.
The resulting blaze claimed the lives of Ms Pearson's children Demi, 15; Brandon, eight; Lacie, seven, and Lia, three. Ms Pearson suffered 68 per cent burns to her body and "clung on to life" until she died in hospital on August 25, 2019, 20 months after the attack.
The inquest, due to last eight weeks, continues.
