A woman whose four young boys died in a house fire after she went to a supermarket has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Deveca Rose, 30, was found guilty of the manslaughter of her twins, Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and Kyson and Bryson Hoath, aged four, in October last year.
Jurors were told the four children died after a discarded cigarette or upturned tea light sparked a blaze at the family house in Collingwood Road, Sutton, in south London.
Judge Mark Lucraft KC said during sentencing on Friday: “There are no words to describe this case other than a deeply tragic one.”
During the prosecution’s opening statement last year, Kate Lumsdon KC alleged that Rose left the children alone to visit a supermarket on the evening of 16 December 2021.
She had also told the court at the time that “there was rubbish thickly spread throughout the house”.
Pic: Facebook
Children ‘too young’ to escape
Rose, who the court heard suffered from mental health problems, covered her head with a thick hood and hid her face as she was sentenced.
Judge Lucraft told the court that the children were left alone by their mother in an “unsafe” house that was lit using tea light candles when the fire broke out.
He then noted that she had already been to Sainsbury’s earlier that day, and her second trip at the time of the fire was not to purchase any items that were “essential or vital”.
The front door was locked at the time of the fire, the judge noted, and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in the home were either not working or were out of battery.
“You were not there, and the children were too young to know what to do,” he said.
“As a result of what you did, they were all killed.”
He then described the victims as lively and engaging children who were “deeply loved” by all who had a role in their care.
The aftermath of the house fire in Sutton. Pic: PA
After the fire started, the court heard that the children ran upstairs and started calling for help.
A neighbour attempted to break down the front door, and firefighters later found their bodies under beds once they entered the property.
The boys were rushed to separate hospitals, where they died from inhalation of fumes that night.
Rose arrived home while firefighters were still tackling the blaze, and claimed she left the children with a friend called Jade. Police concluded she either did not exist or was not at the property that day.
The court heard social worker Georgia Singh had raised concerns about the family and that the case was closed three months before the fire.
It also heard evidence which suggested Rose may have suffered from a personality disorder – but the prosecution said this was not a defence.
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Dad of boys ‘will never recover’
Dalton Hoath, father of the boys, told the court ahead of sentencing that losing his sons was “the worst day of my life”.
In a victim impact statement read to the court by a relative, he said he came close to jumping off a bridge “many times” in the days after the fire.
He said: “Their lives had just begun but were cut so short. It was every parent’s worst nightmare… I have tried to be some sort of normal for my own family now.
“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.”
The boys’ grandfather Jason Hoath also told the court “the pain from this loss has shattered my life in every possible way,” while their great-grandmother Sally Johnson said: “The thought of them crying and screaming out will haunt me forever.”