LONDON

A British mother whose four sons died in a house fire last year in London after she left them to go shopping was sentenced to 10 years on Friday.

Deveca Rose, 30, was found guilty of the manslaughter of her twins, Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and Kyson and Bryson Hoath, aged four, in October last year.

The children died after a discarded cigarette or upturned tea light sparked a blaze at the family house in Collingwood Road, Sutton, in south London, the court heard.

The poor condition of the house they were living in contributed to the fire swiftly taking hold of the property, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

"There are no words to describe this case other than a deeply tragic one," said Judge Mark Lucraft during the sentencing hearing,

He told the court that the children were left alone by Deveca, their mother, in an "unsafe" house that was lit using tea light candles when the fire broke out.

The judge went on to say that she already went to shopping earlier that day, and her second trip at the time of the fire was not to buy any items that were "essential or vital".

"You were not there, and the children were too young to know what to do," he said, adding that as a result of what she did, the boys "were all killed."

Rose claimed that she had left her children in the care of a woman called "Jade" but no one else was found on the property, and it later became clear following an extensive police investigation, that "Jade" did not exist at all.

"Evidence from CCTV, house-to-house inquiries and mobile phone analysis, as well as inconsistencies in Rose’s own accounts, proved she was not telling the truth," the CPS said in a statement.

Emma Currie of the Crown Prosecution Service said that the tragedy was entirely "preventable," resulting in the devastating loss of four young boys who had their whole lives ahead of them.

"Deveca Rose not only left Bryson, Kyson, Logan and Leyton unattended to go shopping, but she then lied about the circumstances to avoid responsibility for their tragic deaths," she said in the statement.

Rose was charged with and convicted of four counts of manslaughter at trial at the Old Bailey last year.