Sion Jenkins, the former deputy headmaster jailed for life for the brutal murder of his teenaged foster daughter, Billie-Jo, has failed in a bid to take his case to the House of Lords.

At a brief hearing at the Court of Appeal in London, three judges rejected an application by Jenkins - who last year lost his appeal against conviction - for leave to appeal to the highest court in the land.

Jenkins was not present for the application, which was before Lord Justice Kennedy, sitting with Mr Justice Dyson and Mr Justice Penry-Davey.

Last December, the same judges upheld a jury's verdict that Jenkins, 41, bludgeoned 13-year-old Billie-Jo to death with a metal tent spike as she was painting patio doors at the rear of the family's home in Lower Park Road, Hastings, East Sussex.

Mr Justice Gage and the Lewes Crown Court jury had heard that about 150 microscopic bloodspots found on his clothing could only have resulted from Jenkins being close to the girl as she was being struck.

Crown experts said Billie-Jo must have died during the brutal attack and would not have still been alive 15 minutes later, when Jenkins said he had found her body after returning from a shopping trip with two of his four natural daughters.

His appeal hinged on fresh evidence of tests which were said to show that the bloodspots could have come from the dying teenager's breath as he crouched over her.

At the end of last year's appeal Lord Justice Kennedy, Mr Justice Dyson and Mr Justice Penry-Davey said: "We conclude that the fresh evidence, though relevant and credible, adds so little to the weight of the defence case as compared with the prosecution's case that a doubt induced by the fresh evidence would not be a reasonable doubt.

"We therefore dismiss this appeal against conviction."

'No bias'

They adjourned the question of whether to certify that the case raised a point of law of general public importance on which to base a further appeal to the House of Lords.

Lord Justice Kennedy, in refusing the application made on Jenkins' behalf by Mr Anthony Scrivener QC, rejected as "absurd" a suggestion that Mr Justice Penry-Davey was an inappropriate person to have heard the appeal against conviction because of his connections with the school where Jenkins had taught.

He said he had been fully aware at all times of Mr Justice Penry-Davey's connections with the school.

The fact that he was an old boy of Hastings Grammar School (now the William Parker School), had made a couple of contributions to the school, and was a guest speaker there some months after the murder, "did not and could not give rise to any real danger of bias", Lord Justice Kennedy said.

'Incomprehensible'

The campaign group Justice for Sion Jenkins said on Friday the case would now be taken to the European Court of Human Rights.

David Jenkins, Sion Jenkins's father, said: "I find it almost incomprehensible that someone with such a close association with William Parker School should be found sitting in judgment at my son's appeal.

"The questions this matter raises go beyond arguments about what is legally allowable; they concern fairness.

"Given the solemn nature of the power invested in it, and the effects of its rulings on the lives of ordinary people, are we not entitled to expect an even greater level of transparency from our judiciary than that which pertains elsewhere in public life?"