The partner of the former EastEnders actor Sian Blake has admitted killing her and their two sons, who were found buried in the garden of their London home.
Arthur Simpson-Kent, 48, appeared at the Old Bailey via videolink from Belmarsh prison on Friday morning, having been arrested in Ghana in January and extradited to the UK.
He did not enter a plea to the charges of murder, but his lawyer confirmed he had admitted killing Blake, 43, Zachary, eight, and Amon, four.
James Sturman, defending, told the judge, Mr Justice Singh: “He admits the killings. There is no objection to that being reported. Any jury will be told that.”
The case was adjourned for reports and another hearing was set for 29 July.
The bodies of Blake and their sons were found buried in the back garden of her home in Erith, south-east London, in January. They had not been seen for more than three weeks and all died as a result of head and neck injuries, police said.
Simpson-Kent disappeared days after being questioned by the police about their disappearance. The former film and TV hairdresser was arrested in Ghana days after the bodies were found.
Several villagers in the coastal resort of Busua had tipped off detectives about his presence. The BBC reported that he had been cutting a coconut when he was surrounded by armed police.
Neighbours said at the time of Blake’s disappearance that they had noticed a change in her recently. “I used to see her walking up and down and we would greet each other,” one neighbour said. “She was a happy woman. I used to see her and her kids playing in the garden. I never saw the man.”
Blake, who played Frankie Pierre in the BBC soap in the 1990s, had had health problems at the time of her disappearance and was described as having “a serious life-threatening condition”.
Officers spoke to Simpson-Kent at the family home on 16 December. He told them his wife and children were missing, before disappearing himself. A missing persons inquiry was launched two days later, but it was not classed as a high-risk case. Police returned to the couple’s property that day and broke into the house, as there was no answer at the door, but did not discover the bodies.
Scotland Yard would not elaborate on how many more times police searched the house, but it was only after Christmas that Bexley police classified Blake and her children as high-risk missing persons. Officers found Blake’s silver Renault Scenic on 3 January in Bethnal Green, east London, 15 miles from the family home.
The following day, three weeks after Blake and her children’s disappearance, murder squad detectives took over the case and the police revealed they did not know the whereabouts of Simpson-Kent. The Met’s professional standards body began a review of the case and of police interaction with the family. It later emerged that Simpson-Kent had travelled to Ghana three days after speaking to police.
After widespread criticism, an Independent Police Complaints Commission inquiry was opened into Scotland Yard’s handling of the case.
Blake left EastEnders in 1997 after 56 episodes, citing a hostile reaction from fans to her unpopular character, a soul singer who was a serial seducer of married men. Her IMDB profile lists later roles in Doctors, Skins and The Bill. She later retired from acting and became a sign-language teacher and interpreter.
