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![]() Thursday, July 2, 1998 Published at 17:32 GMT 18:32 UK ![]() ![]() UK ![]() Sion Jenkins convicted of Billie-Jo murder ![]() Jenkins: been described as "of good character" ![]() Sion Jenkins has been convicted of murdering his foster daughter Billie-Jo Jenkins with a tent spike and sentenced to life in prison.
Mr Justice Gage, sentencing Jenkins to life, told him he was a danger to the community. The judge told the defendant: "Sion Jenkins, the jury have convicted you of murder in what my judgement was compelling evidence.
"It was a furious assault, the motive for which only you now know." Passing sentence the judge said: "By any standards this is an horrendous crime. "The fact that you committed this crime, the circumstances in which it was committed and the way in which it was committed lead me to conclude that you are a very considerable danger to the community. "There is only one sentence. You will be sentenced to the equivalent of life."
The verdict on the 20th day of the trial came after the jury had been out for 10 hours 40 minutes. Jenkins' lawyers are planning to appeal against the verdict. 'Killed in a fit of rage' Deputy headmaster Jenkins, 40, had denied murdering 13-year-old Billie-Jo as she painted the patio doors at the family home in Hastings, east Sussex, on February 15 1997. He had claimed that he had returned from a shopping trip with two of his natural children to discover her body. But the jury found that he had killed her in a fit of rage and used an aborted shopping trip as cover.
He claimed that blood on his clothes came from a bubble bursting in Billie-Jo's nose as he attended to her. A paediatrician called the defence impossible. Another paediatrician said the distribution of blood was consistent with the wearer of the clothes delivering several blows to the head.
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