All it took was 30 minutes. Deveca Rose, a 27-year-old single mum, left her four young boys home alone to go to Sainsbury’s. When she returned, her house was up in flames and her children lay on the pavement fighting for their lives.
Firefighters found the boys limp and unconscious under a bed. They were taken to hospital but were all pronounced dead within an hour of each other. Rose screamed “not my boys, not my boys” as doctors tried and failed to keep them alive.
Barely an hour after her fourth son was pronounced dead, Rose was arrested on suspicion of child neglect. “My kids just died and I’m being fucking arrested,” she told officers as she was handcuffed in the hospital.
Two years later, she was charged with four counts of manslaughter. On Thursday, Rose was found guilty on all counts of manslaughter but not guilty of child neglect.
When firefighters attended the property to tackle the blaze, which happened in the lead-up to Christmas in 2021, they found the home 20cm deep in rubbish and strewn with buckets of human excrement. A mattress and a door lay on the stairway, which slowed down efforts to rescue the boys.
The fire was started by either a lit tea light or discarded cigarette. Fire alarms were not fitted in the property. The landlord told police this was because he believed he was under no obligation to have them installed.
Rose was often cagey about letting people into her home but social services for Sutton council were aware of the living conditions. Their role in the months leading up to the fire has drawn particular attention.
One social worker made two visits to Rose in July 2021. After the second visit, she emailed her managers with concerns about the cluttered home with a “strong, unpleasant smell”. She also said she was worried about Rose’s mental health. Despite this, no further visits were made and her case was closed in September 2021, three months before the fire.
A health visitor from Sutton council visited the family on five occasions between November 2018 and January 2020. She expressed similar concerns about the state of the home and said Rose was “still having some difficulties” in notes from her final visit. The health visitor retired shortly before the final visit but recommended follow-ups. None followed.
The missed opportunities to prevent the tragedy have sparked alarm over the present state of children’s services and prompted calls for the government and councils to boost investment into early intervention schemes, funding for which has almost halved from £4bn in 2010 to £2.2bn in 2022-23. These services, which include family hubs and Sure Start centres, often identify struggling or at-risk families, such as Rose, before their problems escalate.
At the same time, the amount spent on late intervention services for families that have reached crisis point, which includes care homes and child protection, has hit an all-time high, rising from £6.3bn to £9.9bn.
Anne Longfield, the former children’s commissioner for England and executive chair of the Centre For Young Lives, said: “A tragedy of this kind should be ringing absolute alarm bells for anyone who can make a difference. This tragic case shows the urgency of that move from crisis intervention to longer-term early intervention and family support.
“What you see here is the reality of children’s services being stretched to their limits who are not undertaking the proactive family support some families clearly need.”
Those in regular contact with Rose said her sons were happy and well looked after but that she often struggled.
“I want to make it clear Deveca was a good mum to the boys,” said Sally Johnson, the boys’ paternal grandmother. But she noted that Rose was “aloof and very haphazard” at times.
“I think she was finding it difficult to raise the boys in that house,” Johnson said.
Teachers also remarked that the boys were “clean and tidy, very polite and behaved well”. One said they were in “awe” of how Rose managed her four children during a stay-and-play session at the school.
But like Johnson, they also expressed concerns. One noted that one of the boy’s book bags smelt like cigarettes and pet urine and suggested at the time that Rose might benefit from family support.
Doctors who assessed Rose after her arrest noted there was a high likelihood that she suffered from a number of mental illnesses, including an underlying personality disorder with borderline traits and a high likelihood that she has recurrent depressive disorder.
“It is likely that she was not coping at the time of the alleged offences and that her living space was one of the manifestations of this,” said one doctor who assessed Rose.
On the night of the fire, Rose told firefighters that a woman called Jade was looking after the children when she went to Sainsbury’s. They went back inside the home to search for her but found no signs of anyone else. Police later came to the “firm conclusion” that Jade either did not exist or played no part in the events of that evening.
The blaze occurred at the tail-end of the Covid pandemic when interactions outside contained households were restricted. As a result, the help that Rose relied on from the boy’s father and great-grandmother was greatly reduced. She struggled with her mental health during the period. In May 2020, Rose approached her GP with feelings of low mood. She requested help again with this in April 2021.
“We know the level of vulnerabilities, both for children and families, was increasing before Covid and that the pandemic had heightened many of those vulnerabilities,” said Longfield. “If we don’t increase the level of support for families, including the improvement of support for parental mental health, then we’re going to leave families struggling and tragedies like this will continue.”
Julia Ross, the chair of the British Association of Social Workers, echoed concerns about the impact of the pandemic. She said her members had seen a rise in referrals during that period and that many felt lockdown had hampered their capacity to safeguard children.
“They were still out there on the streets, knocking on doors throughout the pandemic, trying to safeguard children and maintain an oversight,” she said.
Jonathan Williams, director of Children’s Services for the London Borough of Sutton, said: “Our heartfelt thoughts go out to the family who continue to grieve for their beloved boys.
“After the house fire, a multi-agency review was conducted by the local safeguarding partnership in January 2022 … The review found that the children were happy, healthy, well presented, well nourished and had a positive relationship with their mother. The multi-agency review that took place did not query the professional practice and the government’s national panel agreed that a local child safeguarding practice review was not required.”
