Mother guilty over deaths of four boys in house fire

Deveca Rose had left her two sets of twins in the locked terraced house when the fatal blaze broke out on the evening of December 16 2021.

The 30-year-old defendant, who had split up with her partner and suffered from mental health problems, had denied charges against her.

An Old Bailey jury deliberated for three hours and 22 minutes to find her guilty of four counts of manslaughter by a majority of 11 to one but not guilty of child cruelty.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC said it was a “tragic case” as he adjourned sentencing to November 15 and granted Rose continued bail.

After the verdict, the boys’ family released a statement condemning the “senseless act of negligence” that resulted in their deaths.

The family said: “The last three years have been a nightmare. 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.

“Bryson, Kyson, Leyton and Logan were left alone by their mother Deveca Rose, and today she has been found to be responsible for their deaths. Our family will now take time to heal and let the boys rest.”

Rose and the children had been living in squalor, surrounded by rubbish and human excrement, before the tragedy.

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 Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and four-year-olds Kyson and Bryson Hoath at the rented home in Sutton, south-west London.

When 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 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 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.

The children’s father, Dalton Hoath, said in a statement that she had 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”.

Paternal great-grandmother Sally Johnson said: “I was aware that she would leave the boys by themselves in the house. When I asked her about this, she would say ‘Oh no, I just went to the pop shop’ which is a local shop just seven houses away.

“I do not know how often this happened but I remember several times I phoned the house and Kyson answered the phone and told me ‘Mummy has gone to the pop shop’.”

Paternal step-grandmother Kerrie Hoath described the boys as “polite, carefree and very much loved” but recalled Rose not allowing her into the house.

On one occasion she dropped the boys home and asked to use the toilet, only to be told by Rose: “No, there is a Tesco down the road, you can go there”, the court heard.

Mrs Hoath said: “The atmosphere was always tense when I was there. It was like Deveca did not want me to be there.”

Jurors were told that social worker Georgia Singh had raised concerns about the family but the case was closed three months before the fire.

Cross-examining, defence barrister Laurie-Anne Power KC said: “You have got a decline in her 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.

Previously a health visitor had raised concerns about the family but they were not followed up after she retired, jurors were told.

The children had not attended school for three weeks before their deaths.

Rose, of Wallington, south London, attended much of the trial by video-link from home on medical advice and declined to give evidence in her defence.

The court heard there was evidence suggesting she was probably depressed and may have suffered from a personality disorder, but the prosecution asserted that was not a defence.

Detective Chief Inspector Samantha Townsend, from Scotland Yard, said: “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.

“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.”