A lady was found guilty on Thursday of the deaths of her four young sons in a fire after leaving them home alone to go to Sainsbury’s. Deveca Rose had left her two sets of twins in a locked terraced property in southwest London when the deadly fire broke out on the evening of December 16, 2021.
The 30-year-old defendant, who had separated from her boyfriend and was suffering from mental health issues, was charged with four counts of manslaughter. She’d refuted the charges. Judge Mark Lucraft KC called it a “tragic case” and postponed Rose’s sentencing until November 15. He also granted her continuous bail. Before the incident, the family lived in deplorable conditions, surrounded by garbage and human excrement. Prosecutor Kate Lumsdon KC told the court: “There was trash throughout the premises. The toilet and bath were filthy and unusable.
Buckets and pots were used as toilets instead. Rose had gone to the grocery, leaving Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and four-year-old Kyson and Bryson Hoath, at the leased property in Sutton. “When a cigarette or tea light in the living room started a fire, the lads were trapped and fled upstairs to call for aid. “A neighbor tried to break down the front door before firefighters in breathing apparatus went in and found the children’s bodies under beds.” The children were brought to two separate hospitals, but attempts to save them failed, and they died as a result of inhaling fire gasses.
When Rose returned home, she said she had left the children with a friend, prompting firefighters to return and enter the house to look for her. Police conducted extensive investigations to locate Jade and found she either did not exist or was not at the house that day. Rose revealed in police interviews that she had previously left the boys alone in the residence on two occasions. According to the children’s father, Dalton Hoath, she had left them alone to go to a neighboring shop. Mr. Hoath, who had split up with the defendant, added that the loss of his “young, boisterous lads” had turned his world “upside down” and left him “devastated.” Paternal great-grandmother Sally Johnson stated, “I knew she would leave the boys alone in the house. When I asked her about it, she would respond, ‘Oh no, I just went to the pop store,’ 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.'” Kerrie Hoath, the boys’ paternal step-grandmother, described them as “polite, carefree, and very much loved” but recalled Rose refusing to let her enter the house. On one occasion, she dropped the boys home and wanted to use the restroom, only to be told by Rose, “No, there is a Tesco down the road; you can go there,” the court heard. Mrs Hoath stated, “The atmosphere was always tense when I was there.” It felt like Deveca didn’t want me to be there.” Jurors were informed that social worker Georgia Singh had expressed concerns about the family, but the file was closed three months before the fire. During cross-examination, defense lawyer Laurie-Anne Power KC stated: “You have a decline in her physical appearance, a decline in the way she looks after herself, a decline in her mental health, and her dissociation with her children.”
“She tells you this will likely continue and has flatly refused to let you see the children. When it comes to family intervention, all of this raises red flags. “It was not your decision to close the case, but you set out the concerns because you yourself had those concerns about Ms Rose and the boys.” Ms Singh agreed but told jurors she believed her worries had been addressed by another social worker who had visited later that day in July 2021. Jurors were told that a health visitor had previously voiced concerns about the family, but these were not followed up on after she retired.
The children had not been to school in three weeks before their deaths. Rose attended much of the trial via video link from her home on medical advice and declined to testify in her defense. The court heard testimony that she was depressed and may have had a personality condition, but the prosecution claimed that was not a defense.
