A monster mother has been jailed for 10 years after she left her four young children to die alone in a terrifying house fire while shopping with a friend.
Deveca Rose “abandoned” her two sets of twins, Kyson and Bryson, four, and Leyton and Logan, three, in squalid conditions when the fire broke out in December 2021.
The single mother, 30, left her children surrounded by rubbish and human waste in a locked house in Sutton, south London, while she went out to buy “non-essential” items at the supermarket.
While caged for a decade at the Old Bailey today, the youngsters’ step-grandmother said justice had been done but mourned the loss of the children after they were “cruelly taken from us”.
Kerrie Hoath said: “The contempt he showed towards our children has been reflected throughout this entire trial as our family has had to endure three years of lies, delays and false narratives.”
‘This time has been a nightmare and the toll it has taken on our family cannot be underestimated.
‘We have heard speculation that the fire was caused by Christmas tree lights, false claims that the children were left with a babysitter.
‘We thank the jury for looking beyond that and delivering a true verdict. Bryson, Kyson, Logan and Leyton were left alone with their mother Deveca Rose. She has been found responsible for their deaths.
Deveca Rose left her two sets of twins in the locked townhouse when the fatal fire broke out on the night of December 16, 2021.

Four-year-old Kyson and Bryson Hoath died alongside their brothers, three-year-old Leyton and Logan Hoath, at their home in Sutton, south London.

Firefighters pulled the four children from the burning building, but they were all pronounced dead a short time later.
He said the children were “beautiful, loving children” who did not deserve what happened, adding: “The impact they have had on us in their short lives cannot be measured and will never be forgotten.”
‘We miss them every day and will always have them in our hearts.
“Although better days will come, the void left by the death of our children cannot be filled.”
The trial heard that a discarded cigarette or an upturned tea light is believed to have sparked the fierce blaze, causing the youths to run upstairs and begin shouting for help.
Neighbors heard children desperately crying, “There’s a fire” as flames engulfed the townhouse just days before Christmas.
A resident tried to break down the front door, but it was too late. Firefighters found the children’s limp, unconscious bodies under their beds.
They were rushed to the hospital where they later died. The cause of his death was recorded as smoke inhalation.
The family was living in misery when the tragedy occurred. The house was so full of garbage that it made the fire spread faster and Human excrement was found scattered on the walls.
The children had also not attended school for three weeks before the fire broke out.
In a heartbreaking victim impact statement, the children’s father, Dalton Hoath, said he “couldn’t put into words” how their deaths had impacted him and said: “I just want to join them.”
Their grandfather Jason Hoath said in his own statement: “It has been almost three years since we lost our wonderful, fun-loving grandchildren at the tender ages of three and four.
“The pain of this loss has shattered my life in every way possible.”
He said it was “too painful to describe” to see them trapped in hell and “devastating” when the children later died in hospital after “fighting so bravely”.

The 30-year-old defendant, who had broken up with her partner and suffered from mental health problems, was found guilty of four counts of murder last autumn.

The single mother left the children, surrounded by garbage and human excrement, in the locked house while she went out to buy “non-essential” items at the supermarket.
The children’s aunt, Casey Hoath, read her statement to the court and described her nephews as “fun” and “full of character.”
“This was my worst nightmare with the people I love downtown,” he said.
In a victim impact statement, great-grandmother Sally Johnson cited her great-grandson’s “favorite word: why” as she spoke of her anguish at losing them.
Crying, she said: “The thought of them crying and screaming will haunt me forever.” My only consolation is that you are now together forever and will never need to be alone again.
‘I’m afraid I’ll never be able to forgive… I’d like to say your favorite word: why? Because?
He told the court his great-grandchildren were “his whole world”, adding: “The horror, the pain, is still with me three years later.”
Rose sobbed in the dock, a hood over her head, as she listened to victim impact statements before she was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday on four counts of involuntary manslaughter.
The judge, Mark Lucraft KC, accepted that Rose was the person in the dock and that there was a medical reason for her not showing her face.
While imprisoning Rose, Judge Lucraft said: ‘There are no more words to describe this case than a deeply tragic one.
“The last moments of their young lives would have been ones of intense physical suffering as the fire took hold and they tried to get away from it.”

Kerrie Hoath, step-grandmother of the four children murdered by Deveca Rose, is comforted outside the Old Bailey after Rose was jailed.

Mrs Hoath (right) and Aunt Casey Hoath (left) give a statement outside court. Kerrie said the family had endured “three years of lies, delays and false narratives” after the children’s deaths.

Deveca Rose appeared at the Old Bailey in January last year. She spent the sentencing hearing hidden under a hood, which the judge agreed she would not remove.
He told Rose: ‘If you had been home you would have been able to extinguish the fire or, if not, you would have been able to get them out of the house.
‘You weren’t there and the children were too young to know what to do. As a result of what you did, everyone was killed.
During a trial at the Old Bailey last year, it was heard that the toilet and bath were unusable because they were full of rubbish, and that buckets and pots were used instead.
On December 16, Rose went to Sainsbury’s leaving the young children alone in the rented house.
She later returned while firefighters were still putting out the fire and was taken in by a neighbor.
The children were rushed to two different hospitals, but attempts to save them failed and they died from fume inhalation that same night.
Rose claimed she had left the children with a friend named Jade, prompting firefighters to return to the house to look for her.
Police carried out extensive investigations to find Jade and concluded that she did not exist or had not been in the house that day.
In police interviews, Rose admitted to leaving the children home alone on two previous occasions.
The jury was told that social worker Georgia Singh had raised concerns for the family, but the case was closed three months before the fire.
Previously, a health visitor had also raised concerns but these were not followed up after her retirement, jurors were told.
The children had also not attended school for three weeks before their deaths.

The fire-ravaged house in Sutton, south London, where the four children suffered their horrific deaths in 2021

Deveca Rose (right) pictured in 2023 outside Bromley Magistrates’ Court after being charged with manslaughter.

Sending her down, Judge Lucraft told Rose: “There are no words to describe this case other than a deeply tragic one.”
Rose attended much of the trial by videoconference from home on medical advice and refused to present evidence in his defense.
The court heard there was evidence to suggest she was probably depressed and may have suffered from a personality disorder, but the prosecution claimed that was not a defence.
In mitigation, her lawyer Laurie-Anne Power KC noted that Rose had struggled with “complex psychiatric mental health needs.”
She told the court: “There is nothing I can say to mitigate the loss of the Hoath and Rose family.
“Although she is criminally responsible for the deaths of those children, she has suffered the greatest loss of all.”
After the sentence was announced, a woman stormed out of the courtroom and was heard crying as she was led away, Sky reports.
The judge described the victims as lively, attractive children who were “deeply loved” by everyone who played a role in their care.