A mother has been found guilty of the manslaughter of her four young sons who died in a fire.
Deveca Rose, 30, had gone to Sainsbury’s when she left the two sets of twins locked in her home in Sutton, southwest London, on 16 December 2021.
A cigarette or tea light in the living room sparked the fire in the home which was full of rubbish and human excrement, a court was told.
Police have said the flames were able to spread quickly due to the amount of discarded rubbish strewn across the floor.
Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and four-year-olds Kyson and Bryson Hoath, ran upstairs and called for help as they were trapped inside the property.
A neighbour tried to break down the front door before firefighters in breathing apparatus went in and found the children’s bodies under beds.
They were rushed to two separate hospitals but attempts to save them failed and they died from inhalation of fire fumes later that night.
Rose arrived home while firefighters were still tackling the blaze and she was taken in by a neighbour.
She 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.
Rose, who admitted leaving the boys alone in the house on two earlier occasions, denied four counts of manslaughter and one charge of child abandonment.
She was convicted of all the manslaughter charges but cleared of child abandonment at the Old Bailey today.
In a statement after the verdicts, the boys’ family said “the impact” the tragedy has had on them “cannot be overstated”.
“The last three years have been a nightmare”, they said. “Over this time we have had to listen to a number of false narratives and speculation around what happened that night, which have included lights on a Christmas tree and that the boys were left with a babysitter. Today these have been shown to be false… Our family will now take time to heal and let the boys rest.”
From left: Kyson, Bryson, Leyton and Logan
The property after the fire. Pic: PA/Metropolitan Police
The children’s father, Dalton Hoath, said Rose left them alone once or twice to go to the nearby shop before.
Mr Hoath, who had split up with Rose, said he was “devastated” and his world had been turned “upside down” by the loss of his “young, boisterous lads”.
There was evidence suggesting Rose was probably depressed at the time of the fire and may have suffered from a personality disorder, the court heard – but the prosecution had asserted that was not a defence.
The children had not attended school for three weeks before their deaths, the court was told.
Judge Mark Lucraft KC said it was a “tragic case” as he adjourned sentencing to 15 November and granted Rose continued bail.
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Flowers were laid in tribute after the fire. Pic: PA
Detective Chief Inspector Samantha Townsend of the Met’s Specialist Crime Command said: “This has been a difficult investigation for everyone involved… Had [Rose] 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.
“In the face of her neglect, instead of taking responsibility for her actions, she invented a story that involved a babysitter whose very existence could not be confirmed.”
Jurors were told that social worker Georgia Singh had previously raised concerns about the family, but the case was closed three months before the fire.
A health visitor had also raised concerns about the family, but they were not followed up after she retired, jurors were told.
