Mother guilty over fire deaths of four sons

A woman has been found guilty of the manslaughter of her four sons who died in a house fire while she was out shopping.

Deveca Rose, 30, had left her two sets of twins alone when a fire ripped through her terraced house in Sutton, south-west London, on the evening of 16 December 2021.

Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and four-year-olds Kyson and Bryson Hoath were unable to escape the locked house and died under a bed, her trial at the Old Bailey heard.

Rose was found not guilty of a single count of child cruelty.

The guilty verdict was reached with a majority of 11 to one among the jurors after more than three hours of deliberations.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC called it a “tragic case”.

The family had been living in squalor, surrounded by rubbish and human excrement, before the tragedy, the trial had heard.

Prosecutor Kate Lumsdon KC had told the court: “There was rubbish thickly spread throughout the house. The toilet and the bath were full of rubbish and could not be used. Buckets and pots were used as toilets instead.”

Rose had gone to the supermarket, leaving her four boys at the rented home before a cigarette or tea light in the living room sparked a fire.

The boys were trapped and ran upstairs calling for help.

A neighbour tried to break down the front door before firefighters went in and found the children’s bodies under beds.

They were treated at the scene and taken to hospital but attempts to save them failed and they died later that night.

The cause of death was inhalation of fire fumes.

Rose arrived home while firefighters were still tackling the blaze and she was taken in by a neighbour.

She had claimed she left the children with a friend called Jade, which prompted firefighters to go back into the house to search for her.

Police carried out extensive inquiries to find Jade and concluded she either did not exist or had not been at the house that day.

In police interviews, Rose admitted leaving the boys alone in the house on two earlier occasions.

Dalton Hoath, the father of the two sets of twins, said his world “had been turned upside down”.

He described them as “young, boisterous lads” who were “well mannered”, “well behaved” and loved.

Mr Hoath said he had received a call from Rose on the evening of 16 December 2021 and she was “hysterical” as she told him there had been a fire and the children were inside the building.

“After being taken to the hospital it became clear that all four of my children had not made it,” he said.

Mr Hoath said he was aware Rose had left the boys alone “once or twice” before the fire to go to a shop about 20 metres away from the house.

The father, who wasn’t living with his children at the time, added that he was “not aware” she had left them for “any length of time” or for any reason other than to get “supplies” and that, overall, she had been a “good mum”.

Det Ch Insp Samantha Townsend said: “This has been a difficult investigation for everyone involved. Deveca Rose was the very person who should have protected and nurtured the four boys, but instead, put her own self-interest above their safety.

“Had she been in the house when the fire started she may have been able to put it out, or at the very least get the children to safety.”

Rose was granted bail and will be sentenced on 15 November.