Updated 00.23 | Published 00.17
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full screenDeveca Rose, 30, left her four children to go shopping. Photo: The police
Firefighters found the pair of twins huddled under their bed in south London, hiding from the blaze.
Mum Deveca Rose, 30, locked them in to go shopping.
Now she is sentenced for the murder of her four children.
– My world has been turned upside down, says the children’s father Dalton Hoath according to the BBC.
Leyton, 3, Logan, 3, Bryson, 4, and Tyson, 4, were out of luck when the fire broke out. The door was locked from the outside and they were far too small to get out unaided. Instead, they did what so many children do – sought shelter under the bed and called for help.
Surveillance footage from the trial shows the last images of the children alive, taken the same day at the Sainsburys shopping centre. A stressed mother is seen interrupting her shopping when she cannot control the lively children, who are running around the store.
Later, she returns alone to resume shopping. The children are then locked in the home in south London without any adult company, and shortly afterwards the investigators believe that a cigarette or a tea light started the fire.
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fullscreen Bryson, Kyson, Leyton and Logan all died in the fire. Photo: The police
Hear cries for help
According to the prosecutor, neighbors try to save the children when they hear their cries for help.
– A neighbor kicked in the door, but the fire had spread so much that it was impossible to enter, says prosecutor Kate Lumdson to the court.
When Deveca Rose returns to the residence, firefighters are still struggling to put out the fire. The children are then declared dead and transported to hospital. The cause of death is smoke poisoning.
Already at the hospital, the police arrest Rose at the same time as she receives the death notice. According to her testimony, she claims that the children were accompanied by a woman named Jade, but the police, after extensive searches, have been unable to find any evidence of the woman’s existence.
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full screen The firefighters found the children who had been hiding under the bed. Photo: Aaron Chown / Pa Photos
Benign and beloved
Rose was believed to be depressed at the time of the fatal fire, and the children were living surrounded by trash and feces in the residence.
The investigation has been going on for three years since the tragic fire in December 2021, and on Thursday the verdict was handed down where Rose is considered guilty of manslaughter in four cases. The sentence will be announced on November 15.
For the children’s father, who does not live with the mother, there is no consolation despite the verdict. He describes the children as “young lively lads” who were “well-behaved and loved”
At the same time, he is forgiving towards the children’s mother. He says he doesn’t think she left the children with any motive other than to buy groceries.
– She was a good mother, he says according to the BBC.