Ex-EastEnders star Sian Blake was 'too ill to fight off killer boyfriend'

Former EastEnders actress Sian Blake was too ill to defend herself when her partner brutally murdered her and their two young sons, a court heard.

Arthur Simpson Kent admitted killing the 43-year-old and Zachary, eight, and four-year-old Amon, before burying their bodies in the back garden.

All three had been repeatedly hit on the head in turn with a blunt instrument and then stabbed in the neck or throat "in a way that ensured their deaths".

Simpson Kent then painted over bloodstains in their family home in Erith, south east London, before fleeing to his native Ghana.

He now faces a triple life sentence when he is jailed at the Old Bailey later this week.

Zachary, eight, and four-year-old Amon were also killed by their father. Credit: PA

The court heard Ms Blake had recently been diagnosed with terminal motor neurone disease.

It was this - along with her "unhealthy" relationship with 49-year-old Simpson Kent - which led her to take the children and move back in with her mother.

Her illness would have left her unable to fight off her attacker, prosecutors said.

After the December 2015 killings, Simpson Kent sent texts from Ms Blake's phone so her family would think she was still alive.

While in Ghana, Simpson Kent was seen "really partying" on New Year's Eve and told a man he had "killed his girlfriend first and killed the two children afterwards".

Court artist sketch of prosecutor Mark Heywood QC speaking to the court watched by the victim's family and Simpson Kent in the dock. Credit: PA

The cannabis dealer claimed he had killed his Ms Blake and their sons as part of an agreed murder-suicide pact due to her terminal illness.

But prosecutors say there is no evidence of this.

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: "We live knowing how Sian and the children would have been scared, terrified, before this monster slaughtered them in their home."

Ms Blake played Frankie Pierre in 56 episodes of EastEnders between 1996 and 1997.