The boyfriend of Ex-Eastender actress is facing life in prison after admitting murdering her and her two sons, before burying them in the garden and fleeing to Africa.
Arthur Simpson-Kent, 49, appeared at the Old Bailey today Friday, 10 June, where he admitted murdering his partner Sian Blake, 43, & her sons; Zachary Kent-Blake, 8, and Amon Kent-Blake, 4.
Their bodies were found by police on buried in the garden of the family home in Pembroke Road, Erith. Sian and her children were last seen on 13 December 2015, when they visited her family in Leyton, and on the afternoon of , she made a telephone call to an acquaintance. This was the last time Sian was known to be alive.
It is believed Simpson-Kent committed the murders between 13 December and 16 December 2015. On 16 December 2015, Sian’s sister received a text from Sian’s telephone stating she and the children needed to get away for a while. Detectives believe this text was sent by Simpson-Kent and that he had already murdered his family.
Also on , prompted by concerns raised by a family member with the NSPCC, police officers from Bexley Borough made enquiries at the home address and spoke to Arthur Simpson-Kent. He told officers that Sian and the children had gone to visit a friend in Cambridge. Simpson-Kent was initially uncooperative but then allowed officers into the address.
Later that day, Sian and her children were reported as missing persons by police in Bexley and a missing persons’ investigation was launched. This investigation continues to be subject to an ongoing independent investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
Excavations of these areas took place and discovered Sian, Zachery and Amon. A significant effort had been taken to conceal them. Post-mortem examinations found the cause of their deaths to be head and neck injuries.
A manhunt was launched to arrest Arthur Simpson-Kent, who it was established had left the home address on 16 December 2015, shortly after officers had spoken to him. Simpson-Kent travelled to Accra Airport in Ghana, from Glasgow Airport via Amsterdam, on 18 December, after spending the night with a friend in Camden and withdrawing £700 from Sian’s bank account.
Detectives from the HMCC travelled to Ghana and Simpson-Kent was subsequently arrested on the , and extradited to the UK on where he was charged with the murders.
Detective Chief Inspector Graeme Gwyn, Homicide and Major Crime Command, said:
“Arthur Simpson-Kent has never given a reason as to why he killed Sian, Zachary and Amon in the way that he did. Sian’s close-knit family are devastated by the loss of their much loved sister, daughter and cousin. The deaths of Zachary and Amon have compounded their grief and they have lost two entire generations of their family to a violent and completely senseless act of murder at the hands of Simpson-Kent. Our efforts to bring Simpson-Kent back to the UK to face justice were greatly expedited by the help we received from the Ghanaian authorities and the National Crime Agency, who alongside us, ensured Simpson-Kent was arrested as soon as possible and returned to the UK. We now await the sentence date of the 4 October where I hope the family can get some form of closure for what has been, and continues to be, an incredibly difficult time for them.”