Four boys were found under a bed surrounded by rubbish and human waste in a house fire that killed them in South London.
Their mother Deveca Rose, 29, had left them home alone while she went to Sainsbury’s around 6.30pm on December 16, 2021, a court heard.
She is on trial for child cruelty and the manslaughter of her two sets of twins – Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and four-year-olds Kyson and Bryson.
Neighbours could hear them inside the burning building on Collingwood Road, Sutton, prosecutor Kate Lumsdon KC told the Old Bailey.
But the four children were ‘limp and unconscious’ when firefighters reached them.
Ms Lumsdon said: ‘A neighbour kicked in the door but the fire had taken hold to the extent that it was impossible to enter.
‘The fire brigade were called. Many units attended. Using appropriate protective clothing and breathing apparatus firemen put out the fire and entered the house.
‘They found the four boys under a bed in the upstairs front room. They were limp and unconscious.
‘Firemen noted that there was rubbish all over the floor of the house and human excrement. There was a mattress and a door on the stairs.’
The four boys were pronounced dead in hospital after efforts to save them on the pavement failed.
Inhalation of fire fumes was later given as their cause of death.
Ms Rose was taken in by neighbours when she returned to the property as firefighters still tackled the flames, Ms Lumsdon said.
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The boys’ father Dalton Hoath, from whom Ms Rose was separated, also attended the scene, jurors heard.
Firefighters went back into the property in search of a woman called Jade, who Ms Rose claimed she’d left her children with, the prosecutor told the court.
Ms Rose maintained this claim in a prepared statement after her arrest.
But firefighters found no sign of Jade in the property, and extensive inquiries led to the ‘firm conclusion’ that Jade either did not exist or played no part in events of that evening.
Ms Lumsdon said: ‘Despite following all the leads provided by Ms Rose and conducting their own investigations, the police could find no trace of Jade.’
A fire investigation found the blaze was caused by a discarded cigarette or upturned tea light candle near the sofa in the downstairs front room, and spread by igniting rubbish on the floor.
Rose, of Wallington, south London, has denied the charges against her. The trial continues.
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