The BBC reporter (middle) and some of the indigenes of Busua who helped in arresting the suspect
A UK resident, Arthur Simpson-Kent, has been arrested at Busua, a popular tourist site in the Ahanta West District of the Western Region, for allegedly killing his actress girlfriend Sian Blake and their two children in London, after which he fled to Ghana.
Daily Guide gathered that Arthur Simpson-Kent was arrested in the late afternoon of Saturday, January 9 in a joint operation by INTERPOL and Ghana Police, with assistance from the indigenes of Busua and Butre, two adjoining communities.
The British fugitive was armed with a knife and a spoon when the police arrested him with the assistance of the chiefs and people of Busua and Butre communities.
He had been a wanted man since the bodies of Sian, Zachary and Amon were found buried in shallow graves in their own back yard.
Interpol put out an international alert for his arrest on Thursday night and Metropolitan Police officers arrived in Ghana Friday to hunt down the Ghanaian-born suspected killer.
He is currently in the custody of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters awaiting deportation to his home country for trial.
The two murdered children, Zachary and Amon, were aged 8 and 4 respectively, while their mother was 43.
The suspect was said to have a Ghanaian mother called Selina Simpson and a United Kingdom (UK) father, with his roots traced to Cape Coast.
He was said to have arrived in Ghana on December 19 after allegedly committing the crime in mid-December and was swimming at the outskirts of Busua when he was arrested.
Local residents told Skyy Power FM that it was the owner of a local resort in the district who alerted the police after seeing pictures of the suspect circulating on social media.
A BBC reporter, Alastair Leithead, who was in Ghana to help in the manhunt, requested to be put on a platform on WhatsApp to enquire from the members if anyone had knowledge on the suspect.
However, the suspect was arrested a few hours after the BBC reporter had put in the request.
After the arrest, the Police expressed their profound gratitude to the locals for their immense support.
Police Speaks
Briefing the media on his arrest, Commissioner of Police Prosper Kwame Agblor, Director General in charge of Police CID, said the Ghana Police received a request from the National Crime Agency (NCA), through INTERPOL Manchester and British High Commission for assistance to arrest Arthur Simpson-Kent, who fled into the country from the United Kingdom after allegedly murdering his girlfriend Sian Blake and their two children.
He said information gathered indicated that Arthur Kent, in escaping from the United Kingdom, travelled to Glasgow in Scotland from where he flew to Ghana via Amsterdam on December 19, 2015.
Police enquires at the Kotoka International Airport confirmed that Arthur Simpson-Kent arrived in Ghana on December 19, 2015 but he entered on his disembarkation form December 7, 2015, as the date on which he arrived in Ghana.
In the wee hours of Saturday, January 8, 2016, a team of police personnel led by DSP Hanson Gove from the Homicide Unit of the CID apprehended the suspect from his hidey-hole.
Shallow Grave
Bodies of EastEnders actress Sian Blake and her two kids were discovered buried in a shallow grave in the garden behind their apartment at Erith in London.
Miss Blake and her two sons with Mr Simpson-Kent, according to reports, were last seen on December 13, and Mr Simpson-Kent was quizzed by officers at the family’s home in Erith, Kent, on December 16.
Their decomposing bodies were found buried in the back garden of the bungalow on Tuesday – 20 days after they were reported missing.
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey and Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi
