The partner of ex-Eastenders actress Sian Blake has been given a whole life sentence for murdering her and their two young sons.

Arthur Simpson-Kent, 49, killed Ms Blake, 43, and their sons, Zachary, eight, and four-year-old Amon, said she was going to leave him.

His disappearance and the subsequent discovery of the bodies in garden of their home in Erith, southeast London, in January this year sparked a manhunt that ended with Simpson-Kent being detained in Ghana.

Ms Blake, who played Frankie Pierre in the BBC soap, was hit on the head before being stabbed in the neck or throat.

The children were killed the same way.

Simpson-Kent painted over bloodstains in their bungalow before fleeing to the country of his birth.

In recent years she had been suffering from terminal motor neurone disease.

Mr Justice Singh, who sentenced Simpson-Kent on Wednesday, told him he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.