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(Image: PA)

Arthur Simpson-Kent, 49, killed Ms Blake and their two young sons, Zachary, eight, and four-year-old Amon after the actress, who was terminally ill with motor neurone disease, planned to leave him and take the boys with her.

All three were hit on the head before being stabbed in the neck and throat by callous Simpson-Kent, who painted over bloodstains in their bungalow in Erith, south-east London, before fleeing to his native Ghana.

Mr Justice Singh today sentenced the vicious slayer to "whole life" prison term for his barbaric crimes on the night of December 14 last year.

The court had previously heard that Ms Blake's condition meant she would have been physically incapable of defending herself from a violent attack.

Simpson-Kent told a psychiatrist after his arrest he used a small axe to bludgeon his three victims unconscious before using a knife.

(Image: PA)

Mr Justice Singh said: "In my judgment this was indeed a case where each murder involved a substantial degree of premeditation or planning.

"At the very least that must be true of the murder of each of the two little boys individually, and in turn after the defendant had already killed Sian Blake.

"Further, and in any event, there were serious aggravating features of this case.

"Each of the victims was particularly vulnerable because of age or disability. There was an abuse of position of trust. There was concealment of the bodies. He made efforts to remove evidence of his crimes at the house, including repainting.

"He sought to lay a false trail by using Sian Blake's mobile phone. He lied to the police and others about the whereabouts of the family."

(Image: ELIZABETH COOK/PA)

Bearded Simpson-Kent, wearing a purple prison-issue tracksuit, did not react as his sentence was read out.

Ms Blake's family, including her mother Tyndall and sister Ava, were seated in the well of the court.

Others relative were seated in the public gallery and wept as the details of the murder were read out.

The court heard sick Simpson-Kent told psychiatrist Dr Philip Joseph "something just snapped in me".

He added: "I felt as if I had just been pushed off a diving board and was falling.

"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."

(Image: SWNS.COM)

The gruesome murders happened the day after Ms Blake visited her mum and asked to move back in with her, with Simpson-Kent and the boys.

When Pansy Blake said Simpson-Kent could not, her daughter agreed to move anyway. She was never seen alive by her family again.

In the days following her death, her family received texts from her mobile phone saying she had gone away and did not want to speak to them, in what the prosecution said was "a deliberate attempt to mislead".

Bearded Simpson-Kent then flew to Ghana after messaging a friend saying: "I can't go into details about what I have done but I only have 2 choices. Go to Ghana one way or Die (sic)."

While in the town of Busua in Ghana, the court heard, he was seen "really partying" on New Year's Eve and taking two young women to a cafe the following morning.

He was held by local police days later.

Ms Blake was a successful actress and voiceover artist who starred in 56 episodes of EastEnders as the singer Frankie Pierre in 1996 and 1997 and also appeared in The Bill, Casualty and Doctors.

(Image: SWNS.COM)

In a statement read outside the Old Bailey, Ms Blake's family said "no sentence will bring them back" and called Simpson-Kent a "monster" who attacked them in a place "where they should have felt safe and secure".

"Arthur has robbed us of our dreams and aspirations, everything we wished for Sian and our precious boys," they said.

"He stood in the dock with a smirk on his face and showed no remorse."

Detective Chief Inspector Graeme Gwyn, from Scotland Yard's Homicide and Major Crime Command, said: "Arthur Simpson-Kent claimed that Sian allegedly expressed a desire to end her life as her motor neurone disease progressed and that they had agreed a suicide pact.

"He even suggested he killed his own children as he and Sian agreed that no-one else could raise them the way that they were accustomed to.

"His claims have caused further distress to Sian's incredibly close-knit family, who have come from all over the world to support the investigation and provide evidence that has shown his claims were just another attempt to save himself.

"After concealing the bodies and attempting to hide evidence, Simpson-Kent fled to Ghana where he did not take his own life. Nor were his actions those of a man who was devastated, or even remorseful following the deaths of his family."