A mother whose four children died in a fire after she left them home alone whilst she went to the shops has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Deveca Rose had left her two sets of twins, aged three and four, in the locked terraced house when the 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, was shopping at Sainsbury’s when the blaze broke out.
She was found guilty of four counts of manslaughter today following an Old Bailey trial.
Deveca Rose had left her two sets of twins, aged three and four, in the locked terraced house
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She sobbed with her head covered in the dock of Court One as she was sentenced by Judge Mark Lucraft KC.
In a televised hearing, the judge sentenced Rose, who was on bail throughout her trial, to 10 years in prison.
Earlier, the boys’ father Dalton Hoath said losing his four sons – Leyton and Logan, aged three and four-year-olds Kyson and Bryson – was “the worst day of my life”.
In a statement read by a relative on his behalf, he said: “Their lives had just begun but were cut so short. It was every parent’s worst nightmare.
“I’m not a great talker but even if I was I could not put it in words. I simply want to join them.
“I will never recover from losing my funny, beautiful boys. I have to fight for all of us left behind and live with this massive pain in my heart before I meet them again.”
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The court had previously heard how Rose and the boys had been living in squalor, surrounded by rubbish and human excrement, before the tragedy
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Great grandmother Sally Johnson wept in court and she told of the “horror” and “pain” of her loss.
She said: “The thought of them crying and screaming out will haunt me forever. My only comfort is they are now together forever and need never be alone again. I’m afraid I will never be able to forgive.”
The court had previously heard how Rose and the boys 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.”
When Rose was out at the supermarket, a cigarette or tea light in the living room sparked a fire.
The boys were trapped in the house in Sutton, south-west London, and they ran upstairs to call for help. A neighbour tried to break down the front door before firefighters arrived.
The boys were rushed to two separate hospitals, but attempts to save them failed and they died from inhalation of 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.
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Justice Lucraft during the sentencing of Deveca Rose
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Police carried out extensive inquiries to find Jade and concluded she either did not exist or had not been at the house that day.
Jurors were told that social worker Georgia Singh had raised concerns about the family, but the case was closed three months before the fire.
Previously, a health visitor had also expressed worries, but they were not followed up after she retired, jurors were told.
The children had not attended school for three weeks before their deaths.
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.
In mitigation, her barrister Laurie-Anne Power KC highlighted that Rose had struggled with “complex psychiatric mental health needs”.
She told the court: “There is nothing I can say to mitigate the loss to the Hoath and Rose family.
“Even though she is criminally responsible for the deaths of those children, she has suffered the greatest loss of all.”