Jenkins makes compensation appeal

Sion Jenkins was acquitted of the murder of Billie-Jo in 2006

Sion Jenkins, the former deputy head teacher who was cleared of murdering his foster daughter, has revealed he is seeking up to £500,000 in compensation.

Mr Jenkins, 50, who now lives in Portsmouth, was acquitted of murdering 13-year-old Billie-Jo in Hastings, East Sussex, after a third trial in 2006.

He told BBC News he had made a claim to the government for the six years he spent in prison before being cleared.

Billie-Jo was found battered to death with an iron tent peg in February 1997.

She was found in a pool of blood on the patio of the family's large Victorian home in Lower Park Road.

Successful appeal

The former deputy head at all-boys William Parker School in Hastings, who was finally cleared of the murder in February 2006, always maintained his innocence during the two appeals and three trials.

He insisted Billie-Jo must have been killed by an intruder while he visited a DIY store.

In 1998 he was convicted at Lewes Crown Court of murdering her and jailed for life but had a retrial in 2005 after successfully appealing.

The Billie-Jo Jenkins murder case remains unsolved

However, the jury failed to agree a verdict and a second retrial ended the same way in 2006, allowing him to walk free.

In a separate case earlier this month, Colin Stagg was handed a compensation award of £706,000 after he was falsely accused of murdering Rachel Nickell.

Sussex Police said nobody was available to comment directly on the action by Mr Jenkins.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said today it would not discuss individual applications.

He added new laws would limit compensation to a maximum of £500,000 where the applicant is in custody for less than 10 years and £1m for more than a decade.

He said: "Changes to the compensation scheme are being made to bring about a better balance between compensation paid to victims of crime and compensation paid following a miscarriage of justice."