Freedom bid by Billie-Jo's killer

By Libby Sutcliffe BBC News Online South East

Billie-Jo was beaten to death with a metal tent spike at her home

Sion Jenkins has protested his innocence ever since being found guilty of murdering his foster daughter.

Billie-Jo Jenkins was 13 years old when she was found battered to death at the family home in Hastings, East Sussex, in February 1997.

A year later a jury at Lewes Crown Court decided her foster father had killed her with an 18-inch metal tent spike in a fit of rage.

Sion Jenkins, a deputy head teacher, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Jenkins has always maintained his innocence claiming he did not kill the girl he had brought into his home.

He was 40 years old when the jury unanimously decided he had bludgeoned Billie-Jo to death as she painted patio doors at their Victorian semi-detached house.

Timeline 15 February 1997 - Billie-Jo found dead 2 July 1998 - Sion Jenkins found guilty of murder 8 July 1998 - he launches murder appeal 15 September 1999 - Trial and Error television programme throws doubt on his conviction 30 November 1999 - first appeal begins 21 December 1999 - first appeal fails 12 May 2003 - Jenkins given leave to appeal 30 June 2004 - second appeal begins

Billie-Jo had lived with Sion Jenkins, his wife Lois and their four natural daughters since 1992.

She had been raised in east London but had been fostered when her natural father Bill Jenkins, who is no relation to Sion, was serving a jail sentence and her mother was unable to cope.

Just before she died, Sion and his wife had become Billie Jo's legal guardians.

Sion Jenkins, originally from Aberystwyth, Wales, was a supposed pillar of the community - the deputy head of William Parker Secondary School in Hastings and a devout family man.

He claimed he had been out shopping with two of his daughters, Lottie and Annie, and had come home to find Billie-Jo was dead.

He even appeared at a press conference with his wife appealing for witnesses to come forward.

Evidence 'failure' in Jenkins case

But a year later he was sent to jail for murder - serving his sentence at Wakefield Prison in Yorkshire.

The judge called him a "danger to the community" after carrying out the "furious assault."

The court also heard how Jenkins had lied on his CV and did not even have a teaching degree.

Forensic evidence played a major part in his conviction.

It was decided microscopic blood spots found on Sion Jenkins' fleece could only have come from a spray caused when he attacked her in a vicious rage.

The theory has caused much speculation and was the basis for a failed appeal attempt in December 1999 where it was claimed the blood mist could have been caused as he crouched over Billie-Jo and a blood bubble burst in her nose.

'Blood bubble'

A similar argument is to be heard at the second appeal.

At the trial in 1998, the defence claimed the teenager had been killed by an intruder and said the girl had complained someone was stalking her.

New evidence claims a mentally ill man had been in the area who had a fixation with pushing things up people's noses.

The appeal is to hear Billie-Jo was found with a piece of plastic bin liner stuck up her left nostril.

The hearing is also due to hear fresh testimony from his daughters Lottie, 18, and Annie, 19, who were with him at the time of the killing but were not called as witnesses at the original trial.

Lottie travelled to the UK from her new home in Australia to give evidence for her father - her sister has made a video statement.

Lois Jenkins, who divorced her husband, shortly after he was found guilty, is also to give evidence but for the prosecution.