A mum who killed her four children in a fire after leaving them home alone has been jailed for ten years.
Deveca Rose, 30, was sentenced at the Old Bailey for the deaths of her sons – two sets of twins, aged three and four – after she left them to go to Sainsbury’s on December 16, 2021. A fire broke out in the locked home – likely from a tea light – killing all four of the children.
Judge Mark Lucraft KC told her: “You abandoned them. 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.” Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and Kyson and Bryson Hoath, aged four, were tragically found by firefighters under beds and taken to hospital where they were pronounced dead.
Rose denied manslaughter and claimed she had a friend called Jade looking after them, reports the Mirror. But police concluded she either did not exist or played no part in the events of that evening.
Rose covered her head with a thick padded hood as she sat in the dock of Court One for the start of her sentencing by Judge Mark Lucraft KC. In a victim impact statement, the boys’ father Dalton Hoath said that losing his four sons was “the worst day of my life”.
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.”
In his statement, read in court by a relative, he told how he cried or stayed in bed and came close to jumping off a bridge “many times” in the days after losing his sons.
He added: “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.” Mr Hoath told how he was now learning to treasure every moment with the knowledge that “tragedies happen”.
The victims’ grandfather Jason Hoath said: “It is nearly three years since we lost out wonderful fun-loving grandsons at the tender age of three and four. The pain from this loss has shattered my life in every possible way.”
He said it was “too painful to describe” seeing them trapped in an inferno and “devastating” when the boys died later in hospital after “fighting so bravely”. The boys’ aunt Casey Hoath read her statement in court and described her nephews as “funny” and “full of character”.
She said: “This was my worst nightmare scenario with the people I love at the centre,” she said. Great grandmother Sally Johnson quoted her great grandson’s “favourite word – why” as she told of her heartbreak at losing them.
Crying, 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… I would like to say their favourite word – why? Just why?”
She told the court her great grandchildren were her “whole world“, adding: “The horror, the pain remains with me three years on.” The court heard that the family lived in “very poor conditions”, with Rose rejecting offers of help from family and social services.
Her children didn’t bathe, as the bath was filled with rubbish instead. They were forced to use buckets and pots as a toilet. But Rose defended the state of their living environment, saying it was “organised chaos”.
During the trial, she admitted to leaving the boys at home alone on two occasions – and only because she had no one local to ask for help. On December 16, Rose claimed to have left her children with a friend called Jade. 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.”
An investigation found that 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.
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 if their relationship was platonic or sexual, she said: “It depends, it changes. It’s been both.”
On whether she trusted her friend, Rose told police she did not trust anyone, adding: “It’s not about trust per se. It’s just she never had a problem with the kids, the kids never had a problem with her.” Jurors 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.
Following the fatal fire, the mother-of-four told police that she hated Social Services “with a passion”. She said the incident had changed her “whole life” and that she felt “like death.” At the hospital, she said she had “lost it a few times”. Retired health visitor Susan Hamilton and social worker Georgia Singh told jurors of their concerns following interaction with the family.
Mrs Hamilton said she visited Rose on five occasions but only gained access three times between November 2018 and January 20, 2020. Cross-examining, defence barrister Laurie-Anne Power KC suggested the decline in the condition of the house and Rose’s mental health difficulties raised “alarm bells”.
She said: “She was 24. She had four children below the age of two and she was essentially looking after them at home with some help from family. There were high risk factors, alarm bells ringing, particularly when you go into the home and the home is in a filthy condition.”
Mrs Hamilton said there was no follow-up and handed over the case upon her retirement.
Ms Power went on: “On your last visit you raise concerns. Although there had been some improvement they were not satisfactory. There was rubbish on the floor. Brown marks on the walls. You were unconvinced that those changes were consistent or were going to continue to improve. Something should have been done to make sure someone from your team or another team continued to offer support.”
Mrs Hamilton replied: “That was the plan but unfortunately we had Covid and it was not possible to visit face-to-face.” But Ms Power asserted: “A vulnerable young woman with mental health issues with four young children living in conditions you yourself do not believe to be satisfactory. Covid did not prevent that continued oversight because there were conditions put in place to continue safeguarding vulnerable families at risk during Covid.”
The witness agreed but said she could not say why no one from her team followed up on the case after she left. Reflecting on her last visit, she agreed that Rose was “a woman who was trying her hardest with four very challenging children” and that she had seen her make time for each of them, giving them a hug and a kiss.
In July 2021, Ms Singh paid two home visits following concern about the children’s behaviour at school, but repeated attempts to arrange more appointments ended in failure and the closure of the case. Ms Singh found the garden to be messy with lots of rubbish, but said that the children were clean and tidy, wearing matching white England shirts and shorts.
However on her return just days later, Rose, smelling of body odour, was “manic”, and didn’t appear to be looking after herself. The living conditions had worsened and Rose had told her that she had “dissociated” the day before, which made her faint, sleep and unable to focus.
Mrs Singh said she asked to see the children, but Rose claimed they were sleeping upstairs and ushered her out of the house. Her reattempts to meet with the family were unsuccessful, with the case then closed in September 2021 due to the mother’s lack of “engagement”.
Ms Power said: “You have got a decline in her physical appearance, a decline in the way she is looking after herself, a decline in her mental health, dissociating with her children with her. She’s telling you that’s likely to continue and she has point-blank refused to let you see the children. These are all alarm bells when you think about family intervention.
“It was not your decision to close the case but the reason you set out the concerns was because you yourself had those concern about Ms Rose and the boys.” Ms Singh agreed but told jurors that her concerns had been dealt with by another social worker who had gone round later the same day as her last visit.
Prior to sentencing, Judge Lucraft KC said it was a “tragic case”.
Don’t miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond – Sign up to our daily newsletter here.