Dad had ‘world turned upside down’ when four sons died in house fire

The father of four young boys who died in a house fire when their mother went to Sainsbury’s said his world “had been turned upside down”.

Dalton Hoath’s two sets of twins had been left at home while their mother, Deveca Rose, went shopping when a fire ripped through the boys’ home in south-west London, a court has heard.

Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and Kyson and Bryson Hoath, aged four, were found by firefighters under beds and taken to hospital where they were pronounced dead.

On Thursday, a jury at the Old Bailey found Rose, 30, guilty of four counts of manslaughter but not guilty of child cruelty.

In a statement their father, who was not living with the boys at the time of the fire, described them as “young, boisterous lads” who were “well mannered”, “well behaved” and loved.

Mr Hoath said he had received a call from Rose on the evening of December 16 2021 and she was “hysterical” as she told him there had been a fire and the children were inside the building.

He then rushed to the “smouldering” terraced house on Collingwood Road, Sutton, with the boys’ grandfather where he was told that his sons had been taken to two hospitals.

Mr Hoath said: “After being taken to the hospital it became clear that all four of my children had not made it and that my world had been turned upside down.”

Mr Hoath said he was aware Rose had left the boys alone “once or twice” before the fire to go to a shop around 20 metres away from the house.

He added that he was “not aware” she had left them for “any length of time” or for any reason other than to get “supplies” and that, overall, she had been a “good mum”.

Rose previously denied the charges against her and will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on November 15.