// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
PC thought murderer was making 'empty threats' before arson attack
The four Pearson children died during the petrol bomb attack, and their mother died 20 months later.
A police officer called to the home of a mother and four children hours before they were murdered in an arson attack has told an inquest she thought the killer was making "empty threats".
PC Gemma Quinn told Bolton Coroner's Court she did not think it necessary to arrest Zak Bolland "there and then" after Michelle Pearson made a 999 call saying the 26-year-old had threatened her son and her home on Jackson Street in Walkden, Salford.
Four of Michelle's children were murdered in the arson attack on 11 December 2017. Michelle, 37, died in August 2019, after being badly burned.
Quinn, a Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officer of 14 years, told the court she planned to arrest Bolland when she was next on shift two days later.
"I carry the guilt every day," she said. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would happen."
A tearful Quinn said: "I have not done front-line policing since."
Bolland returned less than three hours later to set fire to the property, causing the deaths of Michelle and four of her children.
Demi Pearson, 15, her brother Brandon, eight, and sisters Lacie, seven, Lia, three, died at their Walkden home in December 2017.
Bolland and David Worrall were jailed for life in 2018 for the murder of the four children, and in 2021 were also convicted of Michelle's murder.