THE PARTNER OF a former Eastenders actress has been sentenced to life in prison for killing her and their two children.
A UK judge told 49-year-old Arthur Simpson-Kent today that he must serve a “whole life” term with no chance of parole for killing Sian Blake, a former actress in the long-running BBC soap, and her sons, 8-year-old Zachary and 4-year-old Amon.
The victims vanished last December and were found buried in the garden of their home. Autopsies determined they died from head and neck injuries.
It was revealed in court that Kent had hit Blake and her sons repeatedly around the head with an axe before stabbing them.
The bodies were discovered following police excavations in the garden of the home Blake had shared with Kent, the boys’ father, in south-east London.
Simpson-Kent fled to Ghana after the killings but was arrested and did not fight extradition. He admitted to the slayings in court.
Blake, 43, had recently been informed she was terminally ill with motor neurone disease and prosecutors said she would have been unable to defend herself from Simpson-Kent’s attack.
Her sister Ava said in the aftermath of the killings that Blake had planned to end her relationship with Kent, a hairdresser, some time before, “but she hadn’t quite made that break or that decision to leave Arthur”.
- Additional reporting Cianan Brennan
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