A mother has been found guilty of the manslaughter of her four young sons who died in a fire.
Deveca Rose, 30, had gone to Sainsbury’s when she left the two sets of twins locked in her home in Sutton, southwest London, on 16 December 2021.
A cigarette or tea light in the living room sparked the fire in the home which was full of rubbish and human excrement, a court was told.
Police have said the the flames were able to spread quickly due to the amount of discarded rubbish strewn across the floor.
Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and four-year-olds Kyson and Bryson Hoath, ran upstairs and called for help as they were trapped inside the property.
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 rushed to two separate hospitals but attempts to save them failed and they died from inhalation of fire fumes later that night.
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Rose arrived home while firefighters were still tackling the blaze and she was taken in by a neighbour.
She claimed she left the children with a friend called Jade, which prompted firefighters to go back into the house 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.
Prosecutor Kate Lumsdon KC had told the court: “There was rubbish thickly spread throughout the house. The toilet and the bath were full of rubbish and could not be used. Buckets and pots were used as toilets instead.”
Rose, who had split up with her partner and suffered from mental health problems, denied four counts of manslaughter and one charge of child cruelty.
She was convicted of all the manslaughter charges but cleared of child cruelty at the Old Bailey today.
Judge Mark Lucraft KC said it was a “tragic case” as he adjourned sentencing to 15 November and granted Rose continued bail.
The children’s father, Dalton Hoath, said in a statement that Rose left them alone once or twice to go to the nearby shop before.
Mr Hoath, who had split up with the defendant, added that he was “devastated” and his world had been turned “upside down” by the loss of his “young, boisterous lads”.
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