OFFICER SAYS ARREST OF MAN BEFORE FATAL FIRE WOULD HAVE BEEN IDEAL

A police officer told Bolton Coroner's Court that arresting Zak Bolland over threats he made weeks before a fire that killed Michelle Pearson and four of her children would have been the ideal course of action. Pc Robert Webster, who was a probationary officer with Greater Manchester Police at the time and is now a detective constable, gave evidence at the inquest into the deaths. He said Bolland smashed the windows of Pearson's home on Jackson Street in Walkden on the morning of 26 November 2017, during what the court heard was an escalating feud. Police attended and boarded up the windows, and Pearson gave a statement naming Bolland as responsible. Later that day, Bolland sent Pearson text messages demanding £500 and threatened to petrol bomb her home, prompting a second police call-out.

Webster told the inquest that Pearson described herself as anxious and frustrated, and said she was unwilling to go to court to pursue a prosecution over the broken windows or the threats. He said he warned her that without her willingness to testify, a conviction against Bolland would be unlikely if he denied the allegation. Webster said he did not attempt to locate or arrest Bolland, who lived a few hundred yards away, citing a heavy workload and staff shortages that day. He described it as the busiest shift he had worked up to that point, saying officers moved from one emergency call to the next.

Anna Morris KC, representing the Pearson family, put it to Webster that grounds existed to arrest Bolland after officers took Pearson's statement on 26 November, and questioned whether arresting him would have been the best safeguarding step given that four children lived at the address and threats had been made. Webster agreed that grounds for arrest existed at that point and said that, in an ideal world, arresting Bolland would have been the right course of action. The inquest is continuing.