A London mother has been found guilty of manslaughter in connection with a house fire that claimed the lives of her four young sons in December 2021.
Deveca Rose, 30, left her two sets of twins home alone while she went shopping at a nearby Sainsbury’s supermarket. Leyton and Logan Hoath, 3, and Kyson and Bryson Hoath, 4, perished in the blaze that engulfed their terraced home in Sutton, South London.
After deliberating for just over three hours, the jury at the Old Bailey returned a verdict of guilty on four counts of manslaughter on October 3. Rose was cleared of a separate charge of child cruelty.
Prosecutors argued that a discarded cigarette or upturned tea light ignited a pile of rubbish in the living room, causing the fire to spread rapidly through the cluttered house. The boys were found unconscious under a bed in an upstairs bedroom, having succumbed to smoke inhalation.
Evidence presented in court painted a grim picture of the living conditions inside the home. Witnesses described seeing human excrement on the floors, pots and buckets used as makeshift toilets, and garbage strewn throughout the residence. The smoke alarm in the house had no batteries.
On the day of the fire, Rose was captured on CCTV attempting to shop with all four children at Sainsbury’s. Footage showed her struggling to control the boys, with two running around the aisles while she tried to keep the others in the shopping cart. Unable to complete her purchase, Rose left the store with the children.
Approximately an hour before the fire, neighbors reported hearing Rose yelling at the children. She was then seen leaving for Sainsbury’s alone, locking the boys inside the house.
When the blaze erupted around 7 p.m., neighbors heard the children’s desperate cries for help but were unable to enter the burning building. Firefighters arrived on the scene and managed to retrieve the boys, but despite their efforts, all four children were pronounced dead shortly after at the hospital.
Rose initially claimed she had left the children in the care of a woman named Jade. This led firefighters to conduct a second search of the premises, but no evidence of another person was found. Police investigations also failed to locate anyone matching the description of the supposed caretaker.
The boys’ father, Dalton Hoath, expressed his devastation in a statement to the court. “After being taken to the hospital, it became clear that all four of my children had not made it and that my world had been turned upside down,” he said. Hoath described his sons as “young, boisterous lads” who were well-mannered and well-behaved.
Heath, who wasn’t living with his children and their mother, 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, in general, she had been a “good mum.”
During the trial, it emerged that social services had been involved with the family in the months leading up to the tragedy. A general practitioner had raised concerns about the “chaotic home environment” in July 2021. Social workers who visited the property noted the accumulation of rubbish in the garden and detected a strong, unpleasant odor. However, the case was closed when Rose failed to engage in further meetings.
The court also heard that the children had not attended school for three months prior to the incident. School officials did not find this absence unusual due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Defense attorneys suggested that Rose may have been suffering from depression or a personality disorder at the time of the fire. However, the prosecution maintained that this did not absolve her of responsibility for the children’s deaths.
Rose is scheduled to be sentenced on November 15, 2024.
