Jenkins 'vilified' over Billie-Jo

Sion Jenkins spoke to Sir Trevor McDonald for the Tonight special

The foster father of Billie-Jo Jenkins has said his treatment was "despicable" as he was "vilified" over the course of three murder trials and two appeals.

Sion Jenkins, 48, of Lymington, Hampshire, said he now wants to see justice done and Billie-Jo's murderer "brought to task".

His comments came in a Tonight special, "Billie-Jo and Me", on ITV1 on Monday.

Mr Jenkins was cleared at a second retrial in February of killing the 13-year-old schoolgirl in East Sussex.

He told interviewer Sir Trevor McDonald: "Of course my character has been vilified over nine years and that was laid out before the jury as a reason why they should convict me of murder.

"Personally, I think it is despicable," Mr Jenkins added.

"Now I want the investigation opened up and I want the person who has murdered Billie-Jo brought to task and I want justice."

The Billie-Jo Jenkins murder case remains unsolved

A Sussex Police statement on Monday said the force had been commended by Mr Justice David Clarke for its investigation into Billie-Jo's murder in February 1997, and that there had been "no judicial criticism" of its conduct.

Previous comments that the case would be subject to "regular review in case any new and compelling evidence comes to light" were also reiterated.

No such new evidence had yet emerged, Sussex Police added.

During his interview for the Tonight programme, Mr Jenkins also said finding his foster daughter's body was "a scene that no person should ever see".

He added: "I just couldn't cope with it at all. I could not take it in. My world at that moment just fell apart."

Billie-Jo was battered to death with an iron tent peg at the family home in Hastings.

Mr Jenkins was originally convicted of her murder in 1998 and then formally acquitted this year after two appeals and two retrials.