Condition left Eastenders star 'too weak' to fight killer
- by Douglas Reid
- in Health Care
- — Oct 6, 2016
Former EastEnders actress Sian Blake and her two young sons were brutally battered and stabbed to death by her "monster" partner after she chose to leave him, a court has heard.
Arthur Simpson-Kent, 49, killed Ms Blake, 43, and their sons, Zachary, eight, and four-year-old Amon, after she said she was going to leave him.
Police then launched a manhunt for Simpson-Kent, who had fled to Ghana via Glasgow and Amsterdam on December 18 after spending a night with a friend in Camden and taking £700 from his partner's bank account.
Simpson-Kent, 49, who fled to his native Ghana before being extradited back to the United Kingdom, faces a possible whole-life sentence after admitting the triple killing in Erith, south-east London.
Also on December 16, concerns were raised by a family member with children's charity, the NSPCC about Sian's relationship with Simpson-Kent.
Mark Heywood QC, prosecuting, told the court that Ms Blake was planning to return to live with her family "because of her condition and because of the state of their relationship".
"He then covered up his crimes by moving, wrapping and burying each of them, cleaning and partially repainting the home. He lied to the police and others about the whereabouts of the family".
They had been hit on the head before being stabbed in the neck or throat by Simpson-Kent, who painted over bloodstains in their bungalow before fleeing to his native Ghana.
There were tears in the public gallery as Mr Justice Singh said he had been left "in no doubt" that Simpson-Kent should spend the rest of his life in prison.
But detectives believe it was sent by Simpson-Kent and that he had already murdered his family.
Prince William and Kate arrive in northern B.C.
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Malcolm McHaffie, the deputy chief crown prosecutor for CPS London, said after the sentencing hearing: "A few days before she was killed, Sian Blake had been told that she had motor neurone disease and that it was terminal".
Mr Heywood said: "The defendant, using her (Ms Blake's) phone, was sending the messages".
Yesterday the prosecution said while police were investigating the disappearances, Simpson-Kent was celebrating the New Year in Africa, where he was described as "really partying".
In a statement read in court her mother Lindell Blake said the family were living a "life sentence" of pain and sorrow since the murders.
She added: "It is hard enough to give birth to a child, to have to bury one along with two grandsons is inconceivable".
Simpson-Kent told Dr Philip Joseph "something just snapped in me", adding: "I felt as if I had just been pushed off a diving board and was falling". Even more callously he suggested that Sian and he had entered into a pact to end all of their lives because of her condition.
Simpson-Kent pleaded guilty to three counts of murder following his extradition back to the UK.
"I would also like to thank our colleagues in the National Crime Agency who greatly assisted us in the manhunt and extradition of Simpson-Kent back to the United Kingdom, where today he has rightly faced the justice he deserves".
While in the Ghanaian town of Busua, the court heard, he told a local man he "had killed his girlfriend first and then he had killed the two children afterwards".
