Four boys died in house fire surrounded by rubbish, court told

LONDON: Four young boys died in a fire surrounded by rubbish and human excrement after their mother left them home alone to go on a trip to Sainsbury’s, 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 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 escape 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.

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.