Four young boys living in a house strewn with rubbish and human excrement died hiding under a bed as their home went up in flames after their mother left them home alone to visit a supermarket, a court has heard.
Deveca Rose, 29, is on trial for the manslaughter of her two sets of twins, Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and Kyson and Bryson Hoath, aged four, and child cruelty.
The four boys died after a fire was sparked at their home in Sutton, south London, on 16 December 2021. The boys are believed to have run upstairs and cried for help but were unable to escape the locked house and died under a bed, the Old Bailey was told.
The children were known to social services but their case was closed three months before their deaths. The court was told the floors of their home were 20cm (8in) deep in rubbish.
The prosecutor Kate Lumsdon KC said Rose left her children unattended to visit Sainsbury’s on the night of the blaze. “She either dropped a lit cigarette before she left or left tea lights burning, or both. A fire started on or under the sofa, and due to amount of rubbish in the house it took hold quickly,” Lumsdon said.
“The children were, we suggest, locked in the house and could not escape. They ran upstairs to get away from the fire and shouted to the neighbours. But it was too late for anything to be done.”
Jurors were told that while Rose ensured the children were well turned out, in reality they lived in “very poor conditions”. “The toilet and the bath were full of rubbish and could not be used. Buckets and pots were used as toilets instead,” Lumsdon said.
Family members on the children’s father’s side had concerns, and their paternal grandmother had not visited the house often as Rose was “cagey” about letting her in, jurors were told. The children had not attended school for three weeks before the fire.
At about 6.30pm on the day of the fire, Rose left her children unattended to visit Sainsbury’s. While she was away, neighbours realised the house was on fire and could hear the children inside. Lumsdon told jurors that firefighters “found the four boys under a bed in the upstairs front room. They were limp and unconscious. Firemen noted that there was rubbish all over the floor of the house and human excrement. There was a mattress and a door on the stairs.”
Attempts to save the children were made on the pavement outside but they were pronounced dead in hospital.
Rose claimed she had left the children with a woman called Jade, which prompted firefighters to go back into the house to search for her. But Lumsdon said there was no sign of the friend, and extensive inquiries had led to the “firm conclusion” that Jade either did not exist or played no part in the events of that evening.
The court heard that Rose was probably depressed and may have a personality disorder, but the prosecutor said that was not a defence.
Rose has denied the charges against her and the trial continues.
