The family of four young boys killed in a house fire have said “justice has been done”, as their mother was jailed for 10 years for leaving them home alone.
Deveca Rose was in Sainsbury’s when her two sets of twins, aged three and four, became trapped in a blaze at the family home on the evening of December 16 2021.
Rose, 30, who had split up with her partner and suffered from mental health problems, was found guilty of four counts of manslaughter after a trial at the Old Bailey.
On Friday, Rose sobbed with her head covered in the dock of Court One as she was jailed for 10 years.
In a televised sentencing, Judge Mark Lucraft KC described the “tragic case” in which the boys were left by Rose in an “unsafe” house when the fire started.
He told Rose: “Had you been at home when a fire started, you may have been able to extinguish it, or if not, you would have been able to get the children safely out of the house.
“But you were not there, and the children were too young to know what to do. As a result of what you did, they were all killed.”
None of the items Rose had gone to Sainsbury’s to buy that day was “essential or vital”.
The judge told Rose: “Your children were particularly vulnerable due to their age, and it is clear that the last moments of their young lives would have been with some acute physical suffering as the fire took hold and they sought to get away from it.”
Even though Rose had struggled with her health, the judge did not accept it reduced her responsibility.
Speaking outside court, the boys’ family said “justice” had been done for them.
Step-grandmother Kerrie Hoath said the boys – Bryson, Kyson, Logan and Leyton – had been “cruelly taken away from us” by their mother.
Of Rose, she said: “The disregard she showed towards our boys has been echoed throughout this whole trial as our family had to endure three years of lies, delays and false narratives.
“This time has been a nightmare and the toll it’s taken on our family cannot be overstated.
“We have heard speculation the fire was caused by lights on a Christmas tree, false claims the boys were left with a babysitter.
“We thank the jury for seeing past that and delivering us a true verdict.”
“We wish to thank the courts, the jury and the police for the work they have done to ensure the boys’ story has been heard and that justice is done.”
Earlier, the boys’ father, Dalton Hoath, said losing his sons 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 will never recover from losing my beautiful, funny, happy boys. The painful memories and images are etched in my brain, but I have to fight for all of us left behind and live with this massive pain in my heart until it is my time to meet with them again.”
Great-grandmother Sally Johnson wept in court as she described the “horror” and “pain” of her loss.
She said: “The thought of them crying and screaming out for help will haunt me forever. How frightened and scared they must have been, although together, still alone.
She added: “I am afraid I will never be able to forgive, on behalf of my little ones. I will only say their favourite word. Why?”
Previously, the court had heard how Rose and the children had been living in squalor, surrounded by rubbish and human excrement.
After a fire broke out at the rented home in Sutton, south-west London, the boys ran upstairs and one of them was seen by a neighbour calling out “there is a fire here”.
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 taken 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 falsely claimed there was a babysitter with the boys, prompting them to go back in 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.
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.
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.
In mitigation, her barrister Laurie-Anne Power KC said 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.”
Detective Chief Inspector Samantha Townsend, from Scotland Yard, said: “This has been a deeply upsetting investigation for everyone involved.
“Deveca Rose was a mother who placed her own self-interest above the safety of her children.
“The sadness at the needless loss of four young lives is beyond our comprehension.”
Emma Currie, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This was an entirely preventable tragedy, resulting in the devastating loss of four young boys who had their whole lives ahead of them.
“Our thoughts remain with their family, friends and wider community today – we recognise that nothing will bring back the young lives that have been lost.”
