Understand
Walkden fire inquest hears police safeguarding team did not review gang threat intelligence over weekend
Overview
An inquest into the deaths of four children and their mother in a 2017 Walkden arson attack has heard that Greater Manchester Police's safeguarding team did not review new intelligence regarding possible gang threats over the weekend before the fire because they did not work weekends at the time. Det Sgt Alison Barber stated that even if the reports had been reviewed, the risk to the family's lives would have been assessed as low, and nothing much would have changed.
Key points
- Four children died in a firebombed home in Walkden, Salford, on 11 December 2017, and their mother Michelle died 20 months later.
- Greater Manchester Police received intelligence on Friday 8 December regarding potential threats from a Salford gang called the A-Team.
- Det Sgt Alison Barber told Bolton Coroners' Court that her safeguarding team did not work weekends at the time, meaning the intelligence would not have been reviewed until Monday.
- Barber stated that reviewing the new intelligence would not have changed the risk assessment, which would have remained classed as low.
- Zak Bolland and David Worrall were previously jailed for life for murdering the children and later convicted of Michelle's murder.