A mother accused over the deaths of her four young sons in a house fire admitted leaving them home alone twice before – but only because she had no-one local to ask for help, a court has heard.
Deveca Rose, 29, had left her two sets of twins to go to Sainsbury’s when a fire ripped through her terraced house in Sutton, south-west London, on the evening of December 16 2021, jurors have heard.
Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and Kyson and Bryson Hoath, aged four, were found by firefighters under beds and taken to hospital where they were pronounced dead.
Rose, who had arrived back at Collingwood Road to find her house on fire, claimed she had left the children with a friend called Jade.
Following her arrest for child neglect, Rose claimed she had seen Jade standing outside talking to a woman.
According to interview transcripts read to court, she said: “I kept walking and I realised it was my house on fire. I just went straight to the door. I realised, my God, that’s my house, oh my God, that’s my kids.”
Balloons outside a property in Collingwood Road, Sutton (Yui Mok/PA)
She said that she called her mother, the boys’ father Dalton Hoath and then left a voicemail for Jade.
She confirmed that she understood she had been arrested because the children “were left alone in a locked house and they died”, but insisted she had not known they were on their own.
Asked if she had ever left them unattended before, she said: “I’m not going to lie, because I am being very, very honest, maybe once or twice. I would definitely say twice.”
The first time was to go to the shop to top up her electricity after the children were already in bed, she said.
She set up her iPhone in their room and ran to the shop, she said: “That gave me anxiety. The shop is literally there, like you just cross the road from my house. I’m not going to lie and say I have not.”
She went on: “The second time I did not leave them to go anywhere. There was a power cut so I went out to see if anyone else’s lights were off or just mine.”
She said she did not go far down the road and the children were standing behind the door looking through the letter box and peering through the window blinds.
She added: “That one time to the shop and the other time was walking up and down.
“The only reason I had to do that was I did not know any of my neighbours, none of my friends live in Sutton. I do not have someone to call and say come and sit with them for a bit.”
Deveca Rose arrives at the Old Bailey, central London (Jordan Pettitt/PA)
Rose said that she considered Sainsbury’s was too far and she would not have known how long she would be away.
In that case, she would have asked someone to watch the boys or send them to a neighbour, she said: “To be fair they are a bit mischievous too. That’s too much freedom.”
Jurors have heard that an investigation found the fire was sparked by a dropped cigarette or tea light and spread via rubbish on the floor of the living room.
Rose denied that she had smoked in the house that day, saying she had one cigarette outside which she stubbed out.
Jurors have also been told the rented property in was in a poor condition and the family had been using buckets as toilets.
But Rose defended her living environment, saying it was “organised chaos”.
Quizzed about Jade, the defendant said she was olive skinned, of Irish-Italian descent, and talked in slang like “proper ghetto”.
She said Jade, who she knew through mutual friends and on Snapchat, was a “bit of a flirt”, adding: “If she’s gone off to f*** someone I’m going to be mad.”
She added: “She’s not left my kids to go f*** someone before but she’s left me to go f*** someone before.”
Asked is their relationship was platonic or sexual, she said: “It depends, it changes. It’s been both.”
Jurors have heard that police made extensive inquiries about Jade and had concluded she either did not exist or played no part in events of that evening.
Rose, of Wallington, south London, has denied four counts of manslaughter and child cruelty and the trial continues.