FAMILY FEUD LEFT 4 DEAD IN ARSON HELL
Petrol bombs ‘killed sleeping kids’
FOUR sleeping children died after their house was petrol-bombed in a feud over a damaged car, a jury heard.
Demi Pearson, 15, brother, Brandon, eight, and sister Lacie, seven, were trapped after one of the flaming missiles cut off their escape route.
Their sister Lia, three, died in hospital two days later.
The attack last December was the culmination of a feud between Zak Bolland, 23, and the victims’ brother Kyle, 16, Manchester Crown Court heard. The pair had been friends until Bolland accused the teen of setting fire to his Ford Focus and demanded £500 compensation.
When Kyle refused to pay, the pair smashed windows in each other’s homes, it was alleged.
Paul Reid, prosecuting, said that on the night of the blaze Bolland and David Worrall arrived at the house, removed a fence panel, crept into the garden, smashed a kitchen window and tossed two lit petrol bombs inside, it was alleged.
Mum Michelle, Kyle and a pal escaped but the children died.
Michelle, 35, remains seriously ill in hospital.
Bolland, his girlfriend Courtney Brierley, 20, and Worrall, 26, all deny four murders and three attempted murders. Bolland has admitted reckless arson, a charge Brierley and Worrall both deny.
The trial continues.