🕊️ SAD NEWS: EastEnders star murdered brutally with axe by boyfriend in horrific tragedy

In what has been labelled by a former Metropolitan Police detective as one of the worst cases and the “lowest point” of his career, an EastEnders star and her two young children were brutally murdered with an axe by the actress’ partner and the father of the children.

All three were then buried in shallow graves in the garden of the house where they all lived together as a family.

Sian Blake portrayed the role of soul singer Frankie Pierre in 56 EastEnders episodes between 1996 to 1997, and in December 2015, the actress and her children, Zachary Kent-Blake, eight, and Amon Kent-Blake, four, were brutally killed by her partner, Arthur Simpson Kent, in a horrific triple-murder.

EastEnders actress’ heartbreaking diagnosis

Earlier that same month, Sian, 43, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, a crippling illness whose symptoms had started appearing almost two years earlier, and devastatingly learned she would have to live with the terminal illness.

Her heartbreaking diagnosis was just the start of what would become a truly horrific and unbelievable tragedy that would end in her and her children’s harrowing deaths.

After her successful stint on EastEnders, Sian appeared in a variety of roles for a few years and eventually quit acting to work as a sign language interpreter and voiceover artist. Shortly after receiving her life-changing diagnosis, the actress went to Leyton in East London to visit her mother.

It’s reported that at the time, Sian had asked her mum if she and her two sons could move back in with her as she was contemplating selling her Erith home in South-East London — partly to pay for care, and partly because of her ‘unhealthy’ relationship with her ‘controlling’ partner, Arthur Simpson Kent.

The ex-soap star was reportedly going to leave Arthur who was a part-time drug dealer, however, when she went back to the home she shared with the man just a day after visiting her mum, things took a horrific and tragic turn.

Upon learning that Sian was planning to end the relationship and leave with their boys, Arthur, who was born in Ghana, committed a crime that still horrifies whoever hears of it.

The horrific murders

Claiming that ‘something snapped’ in him, Arthur took the ‘small axe’ the family kept in their kitchen and used it to brutally murder Sian while she was bent down and looking at the floor.

The cold-blooded killer repeatedly hit her head with the axe. As she was suffering from motor neurone disease, an illness which weakens one’s arms and hands, Sian would’ve been completely unable to fight Arthur off as she met her tragic end.

But that wasn’t the end of Arthur’s heinous crimes. Next, he used the same axe to murder his two little boys. Sian’s mum had later shared her daughter was ‘besotted with’ her two boys and that they ‘completed her’

The sentencing remarks from remarks by Mr Justice Singh who presided over the case stated: “The manner in which the Defendant killed his victims in this case was truly horrific.

“Although the murder weapons have never been found, the evidence, including the pathology evidence, is consistent with his having killed each of his victims in turn, first Sian Blake and then each of the boys.

“It is consistent with his doing so with repeated blows with a blunt instrument, using severe force, and then by using a bladed weapon.”

The horrific evidence reportedly showed that Arthur “killed each of them in turn with heavy, deliberate, repeated blows” after which he cut and stabbed them “with a bladed weapon in a way that ensured their deaths”.

Murder cover-up

Though Arthur claimed to have ‘snapped’ and committed the heinous murders, his cover-up of his crimes was anything but rushed. In fact, one could argue it was calculated and methodical.

The murderer first carefully wrapped all three of his family’s bodies in plastic, before he carefully moved them and buried his partner and their two young children in shallow graves in their home’s garden. Arthur then thoroughly cleaned their house in an attempt to hide the damning evidence, even ‘partially painting’ the property to cover up the blood that was shed at his hands.

Next, he took the former soap star’s phone and went about sending messages to her family while pretending to be her, in order to buy himself some time. He told Sian’s sister, Ava, that she would be going away for a couple of weeks.

Once the police were contacted and they visited their house in Erith, Arthur came up with more lies in a bid to cover his murderous tracks, telling the police that Sian had ‘gone to Cambridge to see a friend’ as she was ‘fed up’ with her family.

After being questioned by the police, Arthur fled with Sian’s vehicle and ditched the car in East London before heading to a friend’s house where he tried to catch a flight out of the UK but failed.

Turning to another friend for help, Arthur wrote 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.”

By December 19, four days after murdering his entire family, Arthur was in Accra in Ghana, and witnesses later shared he did not seem to look like a grieving widower who had just lost his children and partner.

New Year’s Eve came and Arthur was reportedly ‘really partying’ and took two women for breakfast the next day. He tried bribing someone who had recognised him in Ghana from news reports by offering them cash and an iPad.

Finally apprehended by police

It was January 9 when the police finally caught up with the remorseless murderer, and at that point Arthur claimed he had committed a ‘mercy killing’ that Sian had agreed to as she felt she had ‘no meaningful life’ left.

The part-time drug dealer was eventually extradited back to the UK where he eventually pleaded guilty to all three counts of murder.

Detailing his sick crimes, Arthur shared: “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.”

Former Metropolitan Police detective Steve Keogh shared: “I think for me it was probably one of the lowest points of my career. To have that hope that. You have that acceptance that something’s happened to Sian.

“But you have that hope that, not the boys, why would he hurt the boys? When we got that phone call it was horrible to know that he had done that to them.

“And then when the post-mortems happen, and you see the way that in which they were killed, and that the last thing they would’ve seen is their dad brutally attacking them in the way he did was was awful.”

Arthur was eventually handed a whole life order for his heinous crimes, with the judge rejected his mental health issues defence.

Sian’s mum branded him an ‘evil monster’ as she said: “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.”