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Demi Pearson, 14, her brother, Brandon, eight, and sisters, Lacie, seven, and Lia, three, died after petrol bombs were thrown at their home in Jackson Street, Walkden, in the early hours of December 11, 2017.
Her mother Michelle Pearson, 37, died almost two years later after suffering severe burns.
A joint inquest into their deaths, now in its third week, is underway at Bolton Coroners Court and on Wednesday it heard about the involvement of social services with the family.
The hearing was told on November 29, 2017, less than two weeks before the fatal attack, the social services department at Salford City Council received an anonymous call.
The inquest will be held at Bolton Coroners Court (Image: Anthony Moss)
The caller said: “The children are in a really unsafe environment and in great danger.”
Georgina Tighe, a social work manager at the local authority, said the call was taken by an administrative person working in the department and the information was never passed on to her as it should have been.
Ms Tighe said the Pearson family case was “multi-faceted”, with some, but not all, children subject to child protection plans and it was not considered a “high risk” case.
The Pearson case social worker, Sharon Oldham, was assigned to the family in August 2017, but gave her notice to quit her job in October.
Three days before the anonymous tip, Zak Bolland, 26, who lived nearby, used a hammer to smash the front window and panes of glass in the front door of Ms Pearson’s home.
Michelle Pearson died about 21 months after the fire (Image: GMP)
Bolland, who was involved in a “tit for tat” row with one of Ms Pearson’s sons, Kyle, 16, also threatened to burn her home down.
Ms Oldham visited the family on Monday, November 27, where Bolland was named as the perpetrator of the damage and threats, and Ms Pearson was advised she had to present to her housing provider to move house.
Ms Oldham did not discuss the visit with Ms Tighe as this was her last day of work and Ms Tighe did not work on Mondays, the court was told.
Kyle Pearson had claimed to social workers that a notorious Salford crime gang, the A Team, had threatened him and put a bounty on his head.
But this was not deemed credible by the police, who had no intelligence linking him to a gang war and issued no “threat to life” warning.
Ms Tighe told the hearing that the Pearson family had been visited and spoken to by social workers, that the police did not consider the A Team threat made by Kyle to be credible, but planned to arrest Bolland, a fire safety assessment was carried out at the house and Ms Pearson began the process of moving home.
Ms Tighe was asked about the dangers and criminal damage and risk to the Pearson family.
She said: “It’s a very difficult risk to analyze and try to understand, it’s very difficult to prove what’s credible and what’s not. You’re trying to piece together what’s concrete and what’s not.”
“I didn’t think there was enough evidence to suggest that she (Ms Pearson) needed to be moved immediately.”
On December 7, another social worker visited Jackson Street, which “provided reassurance”, Ms Tighe said, because Ms Pearson had not said she felt unsafe living there.
The following day there was a child protection conference about the Pearson family, after which its chairman, Lisa Hughes, emailed Ms Tighe to say: “I am extremely concerned about the risk to the children.”
Ms Tighe said: “Obviously it’s a concern, but all the professionals are concerned about these children. I didn’t feel concerned about it because we all shared the concern.”
Laura Nash, barrister for the inquest, asked the witness: “Did you do anything in response?”
“Not that I can remember,” replied Mrs. Tighe. “I had no immediate concern for safety.”
The next day, Saturday December 9, Bolland visited the house again, set Mrs Pearson’s wheelie bin on fire and sprayed “grass” on the front wall of her home.
Two days later, Bolland and an accomplice, David Worrall, 28, carried out the fatal attack.
As the family slept upstairs, they smashed Mrs Pearson’s windows at the back of the house and threw petrol bombs.
One “exploded” near the stairs, blocking the only exit to the ground floor and trapping the family inside.
In 2018, Bolland and Worrall were both given four life sentences and told they would serve at least 40 and 37 years respectively for the petrol bombing.
Bolland’s girlfriend, Courtney Brierley, 20, was jailed for 21 years on four counts of murder.
Ms Pearson had called the police at least five times in the two weeks before the firebombing and had asked to be taken back, the manslaughter trial at Manchester Crown Court heard.
The investigation continues.
