Woman guilty of manslaughter of her two sets of twins who died in a house fire

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 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.

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

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, who had split up with her partner and suffered from mental health problems, denied four counts of manslaughter and one charge of child cruelty.

She was convicted of all the manslaughter charges but cleared of child cruelty at the Old Bailey today.

There was evidence suggesting Rose was probably depressed at the time of the fire and may have suffered from a personality disorder, 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.

The children’s father, Dalton Hoath, said in a statement that Rose left them alone once or twice to go to the nearby shop before.

Mr Hoath, who had split up with the defendant, added that he was “devastated” and his world had been turned “upside down” by the loss of his “young, boisterous lads”.

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.

Cross-examining, defence barrister Laurie-Anne Power KC said to Ms Singh: “You have got a decline in (Rose’s) physical appearance, a decline in the way she is looking after herself, a decline in her mental health, dissociating with her children with her.

“She’s telling you that’s likely to continue and she has point-blank refused to let you see the children. These are all alarm bells when you think about family intervention.

“It was not your decision to close the case but the reason you set out the concerns was because you yourself had those concern about Ms Rose and the boys.”

Ms Singh agreed but told jurors she believed her concerns had been dealt with by another social worker who had gone round later the same day as her last visit in July 2021.