A BRUTAL murderer who impersonated his actress wife after killing her and their two children will die in prison.

Arthur Simpson-Kent battered and stabbed former Eastenders actress Sian Blake to death, who it is claimed was planning to leave him and take the children.

He killed her, and their sons Zachary, eight, and Amon, four, before burying them in the garden of their home in Erith, London.

Simpson-Kent then fled to Colchester where he went into hiding while sending messages from his murdered partner’s phone to her family members pretending she was still alive and going away for a break.

All three were hit on the head before being stabbed in the neck or throat by Simpson-Kent, who painted over bloodstains in their bungalow in Erith, south-east London.

Mr Justice Singh, sentencing Simpson-Kent at the Old Bailey today ordered that the 49-year-old should serve a "whole life" prison term for his barbaric crimes on the night of December 14/15 last year.

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

Along with their “unhealthy” relationship, her condition led her to consider moving back in with her close family.

Cannabis dealer Simpson-Kent, 49, had previously admitted the triple killing.

Mark Heywood QC, prosecuting, said: “The evidence suggests on the night of December 14, the defendant killed each of them in turn with heavy, deliberate, repeated blows with a blunt instrument not since recovered, and then by cutting and stabbing them with a bladed weapon in a way that ensured their deaths.

“He then covered his crimes by moving, wrapping and burying each of them, cleaning and partially painting his home.

“He misled friends, family and the police, among others, as to what he had done and where his partner and children had gone.”

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