Arthur Simpson Kent was given a whole life order after brutally murdering his partner, ex-Eastenders star Sian Blake, and her two young sons – but he tried to cover up his horrifying crimes with cold calculation
Christmas was quickly approaching when former Eastenders star Sian Blake, 43, a mother of two, received some truly devastating news and learned that she had a terminal illness.
Sian – who starred as soul singer Frankie Pierre in 56 episodes of EastEnders between 1996 and 1997 – had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease back in December 2015, after symptoms first began to appear two years earlier. But this heartbreaking news was only the start of an unbelievable tragedy that was about to unfold for her family.
Sian, who had quit acting and working as a sign language interpreter and voiceover artist shortly after receiving her upsetting diagnosis, went to visit her mother in Leyton, East London.
The ex-soap star asked her mum if she and her sons could move back in as she considered selling her own home in Erith, South-East London – in part to pay for care, but also because of her “unhealthy” relationship with her “controlling” partner, Arthur Simpson Kent.
Sian was planning on leaving Arthur, but after going back to the home she shared with the part-time drug dealer, things took a terrible turn just a day after her visit home. Arthur learned that Sian was going to leave their relationship, taking sons Zachary, eight, and Amon, four, with her.
In the kitchen, the family kept a “small axe” and Arthur – who later claimed “something snapped” – grabbed it while Sian was bent down and looking at the floor.
He repeatedly hit her head, brutally taking the former actress’s life. Due to her illness, she was also suffering from weakened arms and hands, which would have meant she was totally unable to fight him off.
Arthur then used the same axe to kill the two little boys, who Sian was “besotted with” and said “completed her”, her mum said later.
The evidence showed that Arthur “killed each of them in turn with heavy, deliberate, repeated blows with a blunt instrument not since recovered, and then by cutting and stabbing them with a bladed weapon in a way that ensured their deaths.”
Despite claiming to have “snapped”, Arthur was methodical and calculated in an attempt to cover up his brutal crimes.
He moved all three of his family’s bodies, carefully wrapping them in plastic, before burying them in shallow graves in the garden. He then cleaned his home in an attempt to hide the evidence of his violence, even going so far as “partially painting” the house to cover up blood. But Arthur’s cover-up didn’t stop there.
He took Sian’s phone and sent messages to her family pretending to be her, to try and buy himself some time, telling her sister Ava that she was going away for a few weeks.
However, the police were contacted and visited the property in Erith, which saw Arthur come up with another lie to try and cover his tracks, claiming that his partner had “gone to Cambridge to see a friend” and was “fed up” with her family.
After the police left, Arthur ran. He took Sian’s car and ditched the vehicle in East London, before going to a pal’s house where he tried to get a flight out of the UK – but wasn’t able to.
The friend of the former hairdresser refused to put him up, believing he was in some kind of trouble due to drug dealing.
He turned to another friend, asking for help, writing in a message, “I can’t go into details about what I have done but I only have 2 choices. Go to Ghana one way or die.”
A pal’s card was used to book a coach to Glasgow, where Simpson Kent then travelled to Amsterdam on to Ghana. By December 19, just a few days after murdering his family, he was in Accra – and the picture painted by witnesses of Arthur whilst he was there isn’t one of the grieving widower.
Over New Year’s Eve, he is said to have been “really partying” before taking two women for breakfast the following day.
When someone he had met in Ghana recognised him from reports, Arthur tried to bribe them into staying quiet with an iPad and cash.
Police finally caught up with him on 9 January, when he claimed to Ghanaian police that his actions had been a kind of ‘mercy killing’ and one that Sian had agreed to, with Arthur claiming she had “no meaningful life” left.
Arthur, once brought back to the UK, pleaded guilty to all three counts of murder, though his legal team still used Sian’s illness as a sick defence for his crimes.
The murderer said he “felt as if I had just been pushed off a diving board and was falling”.
He said: “I grabbed hold of a small axe that was kept on a ledge in the kitchen. Sian’s head was bent low down and she was bent over looking at the floor. I approached her from the side and hit her at the back of the head as hard as I could and she fell unconscious at the first blow. After that I hit her repeatedly on the head.”
“My mind was blank and I was focusing on doing and not thinking. It was like I was there but not there.”
He was handed down a whole life order for his crimes, with the judge rejecting his defences of mental health issues.
Sian’s mum said he was an “evil monster” and “It’s difficult to put into words how much we have suffered as a result of their murder and how we will continue to suffer for the rest of our lives.
“We are all living a life sentence, we are all living a nightmare. I would give my life for another moment with my daughter.”