The mum of Michelle Pearson has branded her murderers as 'cowardly monsters' after they were convicted of a horror petrol attack which killed her and her four kids.
Zak Bolland, 26, and David Worrall, 28 were unanimously convicted by a jury of the 37-year-old's murder on Tuesday (March 30).
Both men had already been found guilty of murdering Michelle's children, Demi Pearson, 14, Brandon, eight, Lacie, Seven, and three-year-old Lia.
Michelle died 18 months after the attack at her home on Jackson Street in Walkden in December 2017.
She remained in hospital for most of the period, having suffered catastrophic injuries, until her death in August 2019.
Speaking to the Sun, Sandra Lever has spoken of her torment as she called for the arsonists to be jailed for life and never released.
"I think they're all monsters," she said.
"It's just horrible and cruel to do what they did, especially to children. It was so cowardly.
"Five murders should mean they're jailed for life and never let out."
Michelle spent five months in a coma with 68 per cent burns to her body following the fire.
When she awoke, she had to come to grips with the devastating news that her four youngest children had died in the blaze.
“Where’s my baby?” was the heart-breaking question Michelle asked of her mother after a couple of months in hospital, referring to little Lia.
She had hoped to be well enough to attend her children's funeral in 2018, but was forced to stay in hospital and came close to death on several occasions.
In December 2018, at a vigil marking a year since the tragedy, she delivered a moving message in a video recorded at her hospital bed.
Although frail, she was able to release balloons in their memory from the hospital grounds on Valentine's Day.
Tragically, Michelle died on August 25, 2019, after her condition deteriorated.
Sandra told the Sun that she feels "huge relief" at the verdict. Both men will be sentenced next month.
"I was worried they might get away with manslaughter," she said.
"It was cowardly of them to put us through another trial."
Michelle's son Kyle, 18, survived the arson attack.
But Sandra said: "What made it worse was all the lies they told about it being to do with a feud with Kyle.
"The feud was actually with someone else Kyle just happens to know.
"Bolland and Worrall just told lie after lie in court. It was constant lies all the way through.
"They said all they wanted to do was ruin Michelle’s kitchen. But who throws a petrol bomb into a house in the middle of the night knowing there are children in there?"
The Pearson family were sleeping in their beds when a molotov cocktail was tossed through the rear kitchen window of their home on Jackson Street at 5am.
Jurors at Manchester Crown Court were shown footage of the defendants buying beer bottles which were used to create the petrol bombs, hours before the attack.
In May 2018, Bolland, then 23, was convicted of four counts of murder and three of attempted murder and was handed a minimum 40-year sentence.
His friend Worrall, then 26, was also convicted of the four murders and three counts of attempted GBH and was handed a 37-year sentence.
Bolland's then girlfriend Courtney Brierley was found guilty of four counts of manslaughter and was jailed for 21 years.
Sandra said she doesn't understand why the killers forced her family to go through another trial.
"I don’t why they chose to do it, putting us through it yet again," she said.
"Seeing the children’s pictures in court was so upsetting.
"We are never going to be able to move on because of what happened - five people have been murdered.
"But we have got a little bit of closure now.
"People say the longer life goes on the stronger you get, but we don’t know if we can.
"If someone dies you can get on with it, but when five people have been murdered how can you really move on?"
She now hopes the pair’s sentences - along with that of Brierley - will mean they spend longer behind bars.
"Hopefully, whatever they get will mean they spend longer in prison," she said.
