A 30-year-old British woman, Deveca Rose, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for the manslaughter of her four young sons, who tragically died in a house fire in Sutton, south London, in December 2021.
Rose, who had two sets of twins—Kyson and Bryson, aged four, and Leyton and Logan, aged three—left them alone in squalid, unsafe conditions while she went shopping with a friend.
The children, who had not attended school for three weeks, were left in a home filled with rubbish and human excrement.
The fire, likely caused by a discarded cigarette or an upturned tea light, quickly spread through the house as the children screamed for help.
Neighbours heard their desperate cries of “there’s a fire” as the flames engulfed the terraced house. Tragically, firefighters found the children’s lifeless bodies beneath their beds, and they later died from smoke inhalation in hospital.
In emotional victim impact statements, the children’s family described the devastating loss. Their step-grandmother, Kerrie Hoath, mourned the boys, stating that the pain and suffering caused by their deaths could never be healed.
The boys’ father, Dalton Hoath, spoke of the emotional toll, saying he could not put into words how their deaths had affected him. The boys’ grandfather and aunt also expressed their grief, describing the children as funny, loving, and full of life. Great-grandmother Sally Johnson shared that the thought of the boys crying in their final moments would haunt her forever.
Rose initially claimed that she had left the children with a friend named Jade, but investigations revealed that no such person had been at the house that day. Rose had a history of leaving the children unattended and had previously admitted to leaving them alone on other occasions. Although the court heard that Rose may have suffered from mental health issues, including depression and a personality disorder, the prosecution argued that this was not a sufficient defence for her actions.
At the trial, it was revealed that social services had previously raised concerns about the family’s welfare, but no action had been taken before the fire.
The judge, Mark Lucraft KC, described the case as deeply tragic, noting that if Rose had been home, she might have been able to extinguish the fire or save the children. Instead, their deaths were the result of her negligence. Rose was convicted on four counts of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
