Four boys died in fire ‘surrounded by rubbish and human excrement while mum was shopping at Sainsbury’s'
16 September 2024, 13:47
Four boys died surrounded by rubbish and human excrement after their mother left them home alone to go on a trip to Sainsbury's, a court heard.
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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 children died after a discarded cigarette or upturned tea light sparked a blaze at their terraced home in Sutton, south London.
The boys are believed to have run upstairs and cried for help but were unable to escaped the locked house and died under a bed, the Old Bailey was told.
Prosecutor Kate Lumsdon KC said: "It is the Crown's case that Ms Rose left her children unattended when she went to Sainsbury's that evening.
"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.
"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."
Although the defendant ensured the children were well turned out, in reality they lived in "very poor conditions" and Rose rejected offers of help from family and social services, jurors were told.
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The prosecutor said: "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."
The evidence suggested she was likely depressed and may have suffered from a personality disorder, but Ms Lumsdon said that was not a defence.
Opening Rose's Old Bailey trial on Monday, Ms Lumsdon told how the defendant was a single mother, having split up with the boys' father, Dalton Hoath.
The court was told how the children were known to social services but their case was closed three months before their deaths.
Members of the children's paternal family had concerns, and their paternal grandmother had not visited the house often as Rose was "cagey" about letting her in, jurors were told.
After inappropriate behaviour was raised at school, social services intervened between July and September 2021, jurors heard.
On a visit in July 2021, a social worker found rubbish at the house, a "very strong unpleasant smell" and was worried that Rose had not taken care of herself.
Jurors were told that Rose did not engage in further planned home visits and the case was closed in September 2021.
The children had not attended school for three weeks before the fire on December 16 2021.
At about 6.30pm, Rose left the children unattended at the house in Collingwood Road and went to Sainsbury's, jurors were told.
While she was away, neighbours realised the house was on fire and could hear the children were inside and the door was shut, Ms Lumsdon said.
She told jurors: "A neighbour kicked in the door but the fire had taken hold to the extent that it was impossible to enter.
"The fire brigade were called. Many units attended. Using appropriate protective clothing and breathing apparatus firemen put out the fire and entered the house.
"They 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 jurors were told there was nothing that could be done, and they were pronounced dead in hospital.
The cause of death was later given as inhalation of fire fumes.
The defendant arrived back from the supermarket as firefighters were still tackling the blaze and she was taken in by a neighbour.
Jurors were told the boys' father had also gone to the scene.
Ms Lumsdon said Rose had claimed she left the children with a woman called Jade, which prompted firefighters to go back into the house to search for her.
But the prosecutor told jurors 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 events of that evening.
Following her arrest, Rose maintained in a prepared statement that she had left the children in the care of a friend called Jade.
Ms Lumsdon said: "Despite following all the leads provided by Ms Rose and conducting their own investigations, the police could find no trace of Jade."
A fire investigation found the blaze was caused by a discarded cigarette or upturned tea light candle near the sofa in the downstairs front room and spread by igniting rubbish on the floor.
Rose, of Wallington, south London, has denied the charges against her and the trial continues.
