Jenkins blood claim 'not proved'

Billie-Jo was found lying on the patio with head injuries

No evidence was found that blood found on Sion Jenkins' clothes was caused by his foster daughter breathing on him after her attack, a court has heard.

Mr Jenkins' lawyers suggested Billie-Jo Jenkins exhaled the blood as he lifted her shoulder and tried to help her.

But at his ongoing Old Bailey retrial, forensic scientist Adrian Wain said the experiments he conducted after the 1997 murder found no proof of the claims.

Mr Jenkins, 47, of Aberystwyth, denies murdering Billie-Jo, 13, in 1997.

Christopher Sallon QC, defending, also suggested that such a frenzied attack would have left the assailant with far more blood on his clothes.

Sion Jenkins claimed he tired to unblock Billie-Jo's airways

But Mr Wain said his tests showed that this was not necessarily the case either.

Nicholas Hilliard, prosecuting, had earlier claimed that the test results showed stains were made while the teenager was attacked - and not when her body was moved by Mr Jenkins, as had been claimed by the defence.

Defence lawyers have said specks of blood on Mr Jenkins' clothes were caused when her airways were unblocked after he moved her shoulder when he discovered her dead.

Billie-Jo was struck on the head at least five times with an iron tent peg as she painted doors at the family home in Hastings, East Sussex.

The trial continues.