The partner of former EastEnders actor Sian Blake has been arrested in Ghana over the alleged murder of her and her two sons.
Arthur Simpson-Kent was arrested on Saturday after fleeing the UK following the death of Blake and their two children, Zachary, eight, and Amon, four.
A Metropolitan police spokesman said: “Detectives have today, Saturday 9 January, 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 at this time.”
Simpson-Kent, 48, was arrested in a town in western Ghana, the Daily Mirror reported.
Residents in the area where Simpson-Kent had been hiding contacted police after seeing his picture on social media and realising he was a wanted man, the BBC reported.
Armed police descended on to the beach where he was spotted hiding among rocks and he surrendered. Officers from Interpol were involved in the arrest alongside Ghanaian police. Simpson-Kent was taken to a police station and is expected to be flown back to the UK for questioning shortly.
He arrived in Ghana on 19 December – three days after police spoke to him about his missing partner and their children.
Police in the UK began a murder investigation after the bodies of Blake and her two children were discovered in the garden of the family home in Erith, south-east London.
Detectives made the discovery last Tuesday and said significant attempts had been made to conceal the family’s remains. All three died as a result of head and neck injuries, police said.
It is understood concerns about domestic violence were raised with the NSPCC by a relative of Blake on 16 December, information which was passed on to the Metropolitan police and Bexley council.
A missing persons investigation was launched on the same day after police visited the home. But the bodies were not discovered until about three weeks later. An Independent Police Complaints Commission inquiry has been opened into Scotland Yard’s handling of the case.
Blake’s sister Ava said Simpson-Kent would have to “answer to God” if he was responsible for their deaths. She said her sibling had told their mother, Pansy, that she wanted to get out of her relationship a long time ago.
Blake, 43, had motor neurone disease – a fatal, rapidly progressing illness which affects the brain and spinal cord – and was reportedly looking very frail before she vanished.
The actor, who played Frankie Pierre in the BBC soap in the 1990s, had not been seen since visiting relatives in Leyton, east London, on 13 December.