Michelle Pearson Dies Months After Arson Attack That Killed Her Four Children

After the kitchen window of Pearson’s home was put through, two lit petrol bombs were thrown inside.

Bolland hurled his bottle which “exploded” near the stairs, blocking the only exit to the ground floor and trapping the victims upstairs.

Within seconds flames engulfed the premises.

Pearson, 36, woke up and screamed: “Not the kids! Not my kids!” and dialled 999, but she was overcome with heat and smoke before completing the call.

Pearson’s son Kyle, 17, had been involved in a “petty” feud with Bolland over damage to the defendant’s £200 car, prompting a series of tit-for-tat attacks.

Kyle managed to escape with a friend, Bobby Harris.

The mother begged to be moved to a safe house days before the attack, family members said at the time.

Claire Pearson, Michelle’s sister, said: “Michelle’s been unsafe in that property for months and months and the police was aware of this, and the social services was aware of this, the council was aware of this, and I’m sorry to say this but … they’ve let her down, and my sister and her kids would have had a chance of survival if they did their job properly.”

The children’s grandfather, Mike Pearson, added: “She said she’d actually been to the housing that week and begged them to move her to a safe house or get her out of the area … they just refused – ‘you’re not at risk, you’re not in danger’.”

Speaking on the recently cancelled Jeremy Kyle Show on ITV in October last year, Sandra described harrowing details of the moments she told her daughter that her children had died.

She said Michelle ‘kept forgetting and forgetting’ after she first broke the news to her in hospital, adding that it “lasted for about six weeks before it sunk in to her”.