Fugitive partner of EastEnders actress arrested in Ghana
Briton apprehended by police days after bodies discovered
THE partner of the EastEnders actress found dead with their two children was arrested in his remote African hideout last night after a tip-off from an British café owner.
Arthur Simpson-Kent, 48, was found hiding among rocks on a beach in Ghana by a posse of villagers and a handful of police. They had been alerted by a British national who realised he was wanted for questioning over the murders of Sian Blake and her young sons. The fugitive was handcuffed and driven in a pick-up truck to a nearby village. There locals cheered his capture and heard police chiefs mocking British detectives for failing to find him first.
Simpson-Kent had been in Ghana since before Christmas.
Sian, 43, and their sons, Zachary, eight, and Amon, four, were reported missing on December 16. Their bodies were found in the garden of the family’s London home on Tuesday.
Residents of the coastal resort Busua, two miles from the village of Butre where he was found, say he had made friends locally and celebrated New Year at a party.
London-born café owner Karole Ainoo reported the presence of the fugitive to Scotland Yard but said she was ‘disappointed’ officers did not call her before his arrest.
Simpson-Kent also allegedly offered to give his iPad and cash to a local man who realised he was wanted for questioning over the murders to stop him calling police. He said he wanted to buy heroin so he could take a fatal overdose.
The capture of Simpson-Kent brings to an end an international manhunt, but will increase pressure on London’s Metropolitan Police, who are facing criticism over their handling of the case.
UK detectives had only just arrived in the country and were hundreds of miles away in the capital Accra at the time of his arrest.
Speaking last night, Deputy Detective Superintendent Hansen Gove from the Ghanaian police told the MoS he was ‘incredibly proud to have brought in a fugitive so quickly and calmly’.
Last night Scotland Yard said: ‘Detectives have today been made aware of an arrest in Ghana. We are currently working alongside the Ghanaian authorities but are not in a position to discuss further.’
Detectives are likely to fly back to the UK with Simpson-Kent later this week.
Local police ‘mocked British detectives’