Man who made firebomb threat would have been arrested ‘in an ideal world’ prior to fatal arson attack, inquest told

A police officer told a court it would have been better “in an ideal world” to arrest a man who threatened to firebomb a house weeks before he went on to murder a mother and four children in an arson attack.

Bolton Coroner’s Court heard how Zak Bolland, 26, smashed the windows of the home of Michelle Pearson, 37, where she lived with her young family on Jackson Street, Walkden, Greater Manchester, as part of an escalating feud.