Arthur Simpson-Kent jailed

Arthur Simpson-Kent, the who confessed to killing his East Enders actress girlfriend and their two children before fleeing to Ghana, was yesterday jailed for life by the Old Bailey Court in England.

Arthur Simpson-Kent killed Sian Blake, 43 and their sons – Zachary, eight years old and Amon, four – and buried their bodies in the garden of their home in Erith, Kent.

Kent, a hairdresser who pleaded guilty to the murders at the court presided over by Justice Singh, put them in a shallow grave before fleeing Britain for Ghana.

The accused inflicted fatal head and neck injuries on the deceased persons before burying them.

Kent had carried out the premeditated attack on the victims who had been ‘unable to defend themselves’ after becoming aware of the woman’s plan to leave him.

The bodies of Ms Blake and her children were discovered three weeks later on 5 January, this year, when sniffer dogs pointed out the spot in the garden during excavation.

It is believed the family was killed shortly after they were last seen alive on 13 December, 2015.

Arrest

Simpson-Kent was arrested on January 9 in a joint operation by INTERPOL and Ghana police, with assistance from the indigenes of Busua and Butre, the adjoining communities at Busua – a popular tourist site in the Ahanta West District of the Western Region.

The accused agreed to be extradited on 26 January to UK at an Accra high court where the state had commenced the process for his extradition.

His lawyer, Justice Srem-Sai stated in the court presided over by Justice Merley Wood, that Simpson-Kent was not running from justice either in the United Kingdom or in Ghana.

Surrender

According to him, the suspect did not think the extradition processes were necessary for him to be sent to the UK and that he was willing and voluntarily submitting himself to be taken back to the UK where closure was expected to be brought to the case as soon as possible.

This was after Rebecca Adjalo, a Principal State Attorney, had told the court that there was “overwhelming” revelations about the case which warranted his extradition to the UK to stand trial.