2 Sets of Twin Boys Died Alone in House Fire While Their Mother Went Shopping: Prosecutors

A court has heard from prosecutors that two sets of twins who tragically died in a house fire in England were left home alone while their mother was out shopping.

According to the BBC, Sky News and U.K. newspaper The Times, the Old Bailey in London heard how 4-year-old twins Bryson and Kyson Hoath, and their younger brothers Logan and Leyton Hoath, 3, died after failing to escape the fire in the locked house in the Sutton area of south London in December 2021.

Per the BBC, a discarded cigarette or upturned tea light allegedly started the fire at their home, which prosecutors say was filled with trash and human waste.

The outlets report that 29-year-old Deveca Rose has denied the four counts of manslaughter against her. According to a Dec. 2023 news release from the Metropolitan Police, Rose was charged with four counts of manslaughter on Nov. 9, 2023. She was also charged with child cruelty, which she also denies, per the outlets.

“She either dropped a lit cigarette before she left or left tea lights burning, or both,” Kate Lumsdon KC of the prosecution said of Rose, per Sky News. “A fire started on or under the sofa, and due to the amount of rubbish in the house it took hold quickly.”

Per the BBC, the boys are believed to have run upstairs and shouted for help while their mother was a grocery store. Their neighbors realized the house was on fire and could hear the children were inside, but Lumsdon told the jury that after kicking down the door the fire was too intense for them to enter.

“The children ran upstairs and shouted to the neighbors,” Lumsdon said, per Sky News. “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 neighbors. But it was too late for anything to be done.”

According to the outlet, the prosecution said Bryson, Kyson, Logan and Leyton were found “limp and unconscious” under a bed upstairs before later being pronounced dead at the hospital. The cause of death given was inhalation of fire fumes.

Per The Times, the prosecution said firemen discovered “rubbish all over the floor and human excrement. There was a mattress and a door on the stairs.”

Lumsdon added that the “toilet and the bath were full of rubbish and not in use. Buckets and pots were used instead,” while the prosecution also said the boys had not attended school for three weeks before the fire.

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According to the outlet, the court was told that when Rose returned from shopping, she told firefighters that she left her children under the care of a woman called Jade. However, according to prosecutors there was no sign of another person at the property, and police investigations found that “Jade did not exist, or, if she existed at all, she did not play the role ascribed to her by Ms Rose that night,” the court was told.

Her trial continues, per the outlet.