Fire trial men ‘are too stupid’ to be murderers
JURY TOLD BLAZE WAS THE RESULT OF ‘ANOTHER ACT OF VANDALISM’
TWO men accused of killing four children in a house fire are ‘too stupid’ to be murderers, a jury was told.
The trial of Zak Bolland, 23, David Worrall, 26, and Courtney Brierley, 20, heard closing speeches from their respective legal teams at Manchester Crown Court yesterday.
All three have pleaded not guilty to murdering four children and attempting to murder three other people in Walkden, Salford, last December.
Jurors have been told that Demi Pearson, 15, and her siblings Brandon, eight, Lacie, seven, and Lia, three, died after two petrol bombs were thrown into their home in Jackson Street at 5am on December 11.
Their mother Michelle, 36, was rescued but remains seriously ill.
But Mr Worrall’s defence team said the two men were not capable of planning a murder. They also face an alternative charge of manslaughter.
In his closing speech, John Ryder QC told the jury: “Frankly they are too selfish, too self-absorbed with their petty quarrel and too stupid to see the likely consequences that would have stared anybody else in the face.”
Ms Brierley also denies the charges against her, saying she did not know of Mr Bolland and Mr Worrall’s alleged intentions that night.
Another member of the Pearson family, Kyle, and his friend Bobby Harris, both 16 at the time, managed to escape the blaze.
Prosecutors allege that the fatal fire was the result of a ‘tit for tat’ feud between Kyle Pearson and Mr Bolland.
Mr Bolland denies murder but admits throwing a petrol bomb which caused the fire which killed the four children, the jury was earlier told.
Mr Wright said yesterday that the jury should question whether Mr Bolland had an intention to kill.
Mr Ryder added that the ‘tit for tat’ feud with Kyle Pearson represented acts of vandalism, and that Mr Worrall did not intend to kill anyone.
Mr Ryder said: “Despite all these lurid threats, all those assertions of intent to attack people, throughout all this – but for the injury to Courtney Brierley – the acts were against property. They were acts of vandalism.
“Certainly the results of what they did were monstrous, but those people actually are not monsters.
“They are yobs and their behaviour was yobbish and loutish.
“That’s what they had in mind when they went to the Pearson household. It was going to be another act of vandalism.
“Another act of getting the better of the other side.
“He (Mr Worrall) did not for one moment expect, still less intend, to kill anybody.”
The final speech came from Andrew Hall QC, on behalf of Ms Brierley.
Mr Hall said she did not know what was to happen that night, and asked the jury to find her not guilty.
He said: “You must not be overwhelmed by the appalling circumstances of this case.
“There could be no greater tragedy than what has happened to that family, except by convicting someone who may be innocent.
“We invite you not to destroy her life and to have the courage to say we cannot find her guilty and we don’t hold her responsible for those deaths.”
The jury will return to court on Monday morning, when the judge will sum up the case before the jury retire to consider their verdicts.
Mr Bolland, of Blackleach Drive, Walkden; Ms Brierley, of Worsley Avenue, Walkden; and Mr Worrall, of Worsley Avenue, Walkden, all deny four counts of murder and three of attempted murder.
Proceeding