Billie-Jo Jenkins

Ten year old Lottie loved her big sister Billie-Jo. They weren’t sisters in the strictest sense as Billie-Jo was being fostered by Lottie’s parents Lois and Sion. The thirteen year old had been staying with the family for the last four and a half  years and after a bumpy start got on well with her foster siblings. As well as Lottie, Lois and Sion had three other daughters of their own, all younger than Billie-Jo: Annie, 12, Esther, 8, and Maya, 7. Billie-Jo coincidentally shared the family's last name: Jenkins. It was the end of the half term holidays and the Jenkins family were spending the weekend enjoying themselves in the outdoors and completing some odd jobs around the house. 

On the afternoon of Saturday the 15th February 1997, Sion, together with his daughters Lottie and Annie, returned to the large three storey family house in Lower Park Road, Hastings, from a quick visit to a DIY store. It had been a wasted trip as Sion had forgotten to take his wallet with him and so they had returned empty handed. When the three exited Sion’s Rover MG Coupe and entered the house they found it quiet and still. This wasn't surprising as Lois had taken the two youngest children, Esther and Maya, out for a walk along the beach, and they had left Billie-Jo in the back garden just a short time ago. She had been given the task of painting the patio door frame, and she was enjoying the work in the pleasant late winter sunshine. Lottie went through the house to the back garden to look for her foster sister. When she got to the patio door she froze and screamed out for her father. The scene before her was unimaginable. She could see blood everywhere.

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Billie-Jo Jenkins was born in East London on the 29th of March of 1983. She had a difficult early childhood, and was placed into foster care at age 8 by her mother Deborah Barnett, after her father, Bill Jenkins, was sent to prison. It can't have been an easy decision for Deborah, but she felt she couldn’t cope alone and that this was the best thing for the wellbeing of her children. The Jenkins’ youngest child went to live with an aunt but Billie-Joe and her half brother were placed with a foster family in Ilford, Essex. The situation didn't work out and the pair were placed with a new foster family by Newham social services. Lois and Sion Jenkins had recently applied to be foster parents as they felt they had the room in both their house and hearts for more children, particularly children who hadn’t had the best start to life. Both Billie-Jo and her half brother went to live with the Jenkins in London. 

Sion was a deputy headteacher who aspired to become a local Conservative councillor, and Lois was a social worker. Together with their four daughters it seemed a perfect fit, though Billie-Jo continued to keep in contact with her birth parents over the next 5 years. There was a settling in period which at times was difficult and saw all parties having to make adjustments and compromises. Billie-Jo's brother was eventually taken out of the Jenkins home and placed in a children’s home, though apparently Sion continued to visit him there as he settled in. 

Slowly but surely Billie-Jo began to adjust to her new life, and when Sion got a new deputy head teaching job in Hastings, Sussex the family were pleasantly surprised that Billie-Jo wanted to go with them. She had the option to stay with another family in London but chose to say goodbye to her friends and make a fresh start on the south coast. Billie-Jo appeared to enjoy her new home in Hastings and loved spending time in the local park and down at the beach, which was only a couple of kilometres away. She made good friends and her chaotic life in London seemed a million miles from the new life she was making for herself with the Jenkins family.

When she was 11, Billie-Jo began to attend Helenswood Comprehensive school in Hastings. She was popular with both her peers and teachers. She was likeable and hardworking and was described by a neighbour as having impeccable manners. She appeared to be happy and content. This senseless act of violence towards her left a family and community reeling. 

During half term the five Jenkins girls had enjoyed normal holiday activities such as sleepovers, swimming and even a birthday party. The morning of Saturday the 15th February had been a busy one for Lois and Sion as they had been rushing around doing some shopping. At lunchtime they were glad of homemade soup and a well earned rest. Billie-Jo had spent the morning taking their dog Buster for a walk in the park opposite their house.

After lunch, Lois took Esther and Maya together with the dog into town and then for a walk along the beach. Annie and Bille Jo remained with Sion as they were keen to do some chores for pocket money. Lottie had a clarinet lesson at 2pm which the family actually forgot about until one of Lottie’s friend’s parents arrived to pick her up. Between 2pm and 3pm Annie cleared out the utility room, Sion swept the garden and Billie-Joe painted the patio windows whilst listening to the radio. At 3pm Sion took Annie with him to go and pick up Lottie. They took Lottie’s friend home first, dropping her off between 3.15 and 3.20pm. Sion, Annie and Lottie then returned to the Jenkins House.

According to the two girls they all went back into the house but only very briefly, just long enough to deposit the clarinet. Sion then said they needed to go out to buy white spirit to clean the paint marks that Billie-Jo had dripped onto the patio. The girls went outside to wait for their father. He wasn't long behind them, maybe 3 minutes. Sion took the slightly longer route to the store because he didn't want to perform a turn in their busy road. The girls noticed that they drove twice around the park enroute. When they got to the shop Sion  realised that he didn't have any money with him so they returned without any white spirit. As the car pulled up one of the girls saw that the side gate to the garden was open. Lottie and Annie rushed ahead into the house. Lottie entered the dining room first and through the patio doors she saw Billie-Jo covered in blood.

When Sion heard Lottie’s scream he rushed to her, and found Billie-Joe on the patio lying in a pool of blood. Her head was facing down the garden, with her left cheek against the hard floor, one of her hands was raised by her face. Her legs were together and straight. She had obvious injuries to her head, in fact her skull had been crushed. Next to her stood a paint pot and brush and a 1kg, 45cm long iron tent peg. Sion described the moment as having a strange stillness. Time had frozen and evil had entered all their lives. 

He has said he was afraid to touch her as he could see pieces of skull and brain matter on her face. He bent down next to her body and told Annie and Lottie to go into the playroom. He moved some hair from across her face and lifted her head but released his hold when it felt limp. Her forehead was misshapen and one of her eyes was swollen. He went to the telephone and rang a friend and neighbour, Denise Lancaster for help. She arrived promptly and said when she saw Billie-Jo she looked like she was asleep. She noticed the straight position of her legs and thought it odd. She approached her and could see how devastating the injuries were. She knelt and touched her face. 

Sion Jenkins then rang the emergency services, telling the call operator that his daughter had fallen and had head injuries. He also mentioned that there was a lot of blood. He did not mention the tent peg but it is unclear whether, in the chaos of the moment, Sion had even noticed it. He later said he knew straight away that this was not an accident. The time of call was recorded as 3.38pm. Around 8 minutes later, the neighbour told him to  phone 999 again in an attempt to get assistance quicker. Sion did so. When the ambulance arrived Billie-Jo was already deceased. 

The post-mortem detailed the horrific injuries Billie-Jo had endured that afternoon. She suffered 20 separate injuries including 6 to the left side of her head in what was described as a frenzied attack. The top of her skull was shattered and her brain badly damaged in the assault. The skull had fracture lines down to the eyes and nose and there were four lacerations, the broken skull and the brain were visible through three of these. Other injuries included two black eyes and bruising to the back of the hand and forearm which could have been the result of Billie-Jo trying to protect herself.

The murder weapon was confirmed as the iron tent peg found close to the body. It belonged to the Jenkins’s and was usually in the utility room. It was originally used with three similar pegs to keep the play swing rooted to the ground. One of the children had been given the chore of cleaning out the storehouse and had found the pegs and placed them on top of an old coal bunker at the bottom of the garden.  

Billie-Jo had not been sexually assaulted but bizarrely a piece of a black plastic bag was discovered in her left nostril. The piece of plastic was originally noticed by Denise Lancaster, the neighbour and friend of the Jenkins family who came to assist Sion. She said the piece of plastic was large enough to see protruding from her nose, and when she pulled it blood came out.  

With this information a murder investigation, led by Detective Superintendent Jeremy Paine, started in earnest. Lois and Sion appeared at a live press conference appealing for anyone with any knowledge or information, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, to come forward. Police made an early plea to the public that they were trying to trace a scar-faced homeless man said to be seen loitering in the vicinity. He was said to be white with wispy fair hair and standing at approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall. Witness reports said he was holding a plastic bag from the Safeway supermarket chain and a french bread style baguette. 

Over the past few years the Jenkins family had been convinced a prowler had been hanging around the neighbourhood, and their house in particular was vulnerable because people would often use the side entrance to the house and garden to make a shortcut to the park. The family had gotten a Staffordshire Bull terrier called Buster to help with this issue, although in reality he was very friendly and not fierce enough to be a guard dog. The problem of prowlers and low level crime had been increasing gradually over the years and the Jenkins’s cars had been vandalised. Whilst being interviewed Sion Jenkins told police that he believed someone had been watching the house and even sneaking into their back garden regularly over the last few months. Two weeks before the attack he had actually caught a person in the act of breaking into their garden but they had fled before he could get a good look at them. During this incident the patio doors were damaged. A week or so before that he witnessed a man staring at the family home from across the street at the entrance to Alexandra park. This incident troubled Sion and Lois so much they purchased some security lights to give them peace of mind. Even after that there were several incidents of finding the side gate wide open which they couldn’t get to the bottom of. The family were so fed up with the problem they had talked about moving house.

Traditionally Hastings was known as being a quiet, seaside town without a high crime rate, and violent crime in particular was low. Over the previous months, however, neighbours of the Jenkins family spoke of several robberies occurring in the area. Over the last couple of years there had been concern amongst residents of drug dealing happening in Alexandra Park. The house next door to the Jenkins was currently unoccupied. It had been bought to be used as Housing Association accommodation but had been empty for months. It could have provided the perfect cover for the assailant to lay in wait ready to attack at an opportune moment.

This certainly appeared to be an avenue worth exploring, and even more so when reports reached police that Billie-Jo had complained on more than one occasion since Christmas 1996 that she felt she was being watched or followed . She described her stalker as a white man in his 40’s or 50’s who wore a black  leather jacket. This description is apparently similar to that given by Sion Jenkins of the man he saw staring at the family house. This was not the first time Billie-Jo had told of someone showing her unwanted attention. Two years previous she had shared with her foster parents that she felt that a man was stalking her. This information was passed on to Helenwoods Comprehensive so they were aware of this situation. Billie also reported receiving strange phone calls at the house. The person calling would always hang up the call before speaking, so their identity or the reason behind the calls was a complete mystery. Detective Superintendent Jeremy Paine made this information public, hoping it may bring forth some leads. 

A matter of days following the murder the police announced that they had arrested a 44 year old man in connection with the attack. He had large birthmark on his face and he was reported as being the same “scar faced” man seen carrrying a plastic bag and french loaf in the vicinity on the day of the murder. He was not in custody for very long, being released into the care of a psychiatric hospital and dismissed as a suspect. It was later revealed that he was also found to have a piece of a plastic bag wedged in his nostrils and that the man, who was suffering with a mental illness, had an obsession with plastic. This man was later known only as Mr B during court proceedings. Within hours of Mr B’s release another unidentified man was arrested. He too was not believed to be involved in the murder and after an interview with investigators was free to leave.

With so much focus on the suspect being a stalker or stranger it came as a shock when police announced nine days following the murder, on the 24th February 1997, that Sion Jenkins had been arrested. As in any investigation of a crime like this, the lives of Billie-Jo’s foster parents were examined in forensic detail and police discovered some things about Sion which raised a few red flags. They found that he had lied about his qualifications in order to obtain his current job as deputy headteacher at William Parker school. If he was lying in one area of his life could he be lying in another? As police dug deeper they grew more suspicious of Sion. It later came out that Lois Jenkins herself went to police saying she thought her husband could be the killer of their foster daughter. 

It was only four days or so after the murder when she was lying in bed that the thought struck her that it could be Sion. She claimed he lacked emotion in those first few days following the murder and offered very little support to her. She told police that Sion had a controlling personality and it was common for him to get angry and lose his temper. Lois also said she did not like the way he chose to discipline their daughters, using a stick at times to administer corporal punishment. Although she did say she had not seen him hit Billie-Jo.

This information meant that Sion Jenkins became the prime suspect. He was questioned for three weeks following his arrest and was finally charged with Billie-Jo’s murder. At the same time he was also charged with “dishonestly obtaining pecuniary advantage” in relation to the false qualifications he used to obtain his current senior teaching position.

Sion was granted bail and moved to Aberystwyth in mid Wales. Despite living for most of his adult life in England he had grown up in Wales, spending time in Pencoed, Aberystwyth and North Wales. He thought this would be a good place to find some space and mentally prepare for the trial. During this time Lois  divorced him and moved abroad with the four girls. 

The trial of Sion Jenkins began in June 1998. The story of the murder of the 13 year old had touched the nation and had been a huge story in the media. Everyone had an opinion on it. The prosecuting team led with the idea that Sion had killed Billie-Jo after continually being frustrated with her over the course of that day. The reasons for the conflict were normal domestic issues that occur all the time between parents and teenagers all over the world. The prosecution argued this had built up beyond all proportion in Sion’s mind causing him to lose his temper and violently snap, killing his foster daughter in a frenzied rage. 

The evidence used against Sion Jenkins was essentially two pronged. The first was largely forensic and was due to the presence of tiny blood droplets, invisible to the naked eye, that were discovered on Sion’s blue fleece. Forensic examination revealed 158 million microscopic particles of blood which the prosecution said were caused by an out of control Sion Jenkins raining down blows on his foster daughter. 

The second was a three minute window of opportunity which the prosecution said was enough time for Sion to commit the attack. The time period they are referring to was after Sion and Annie picked up Lottie from the clarinet lesson. The three entered the house but almost straight away Sion said they were going to pick up white spirit from the DIY store. The girls went out to wait by the car and Sion was briefly in the house alone with Billie-Jo. This was the moment the prosecution argued that Sion killed Billie-Jo. They then said that Sion went out to the DIY store in an attempt to create an alibi for himself. Both Annie and Lottie mentioned that they had driven around the park twice and the prosecution said this was proof of Sion Jenkins trying to buy himself some time. They pointed to the fact that Sion had returned without any white spirit and the police had found a bottle of the cleaning liquid already in the house. 

The prosecution mentioned additional evidence against Sion. He was criticised for his actions when first finding Billie-Jo. He had not attempted CPR nor tried to put her in the recovery position. This was seen as a highly suspicious response from someone who supposedly cared for Billie-Jo. They also claimed he had lied, as he told a neighbour at the scene that he had attempted emergency aid. There was also the accusation that Sion had not phoned for an ambulance straight away and had delayed doing so for several minutes. He apparently first chose to adjust the volume on the ringtone on one of the house landline phones as it coincidentally was ringing when he came back into the house after discovering Billie-Jo. He then decided to call a neighbour for help. I’ll mention here that I have read another timeline of a blog which has Sion phoning for an ambulance before he phoned the neighbour but I presume the prosecution's assertions were based on phone records. 

The emergency calls themselves, of which there were two, were also scrutinised. The prosecution deemed Sion Jenkins to have been untruthful in some of the responses he gave during the conversations with the call operators. Sion was alleged to have misled the emergency services when he said that he and his daughters had returned to the house to find Billie-Jo in that state after being away for 45 minutes. In fact it was nearer 15 to 20 minutes. During one of the 999 calls Sion was asked to feel for a pulse and move Billie-Jo into the recovery position. The prosecution said that he didn’t do either of these things. In the recording of one of the 999 calls the emergency operator can be heard asking Sion if Billie-Jo was still breathing, to which he replied he didn't know. This seemed to contradict later information given by Sion during police questioning when he said he saw a bubble from her nose and knew she was still alive at that point. They also said that whilst waiting for the ambulance Sion had tried first to shake off and then to wash off the blood from his hands, which they claimed was an odd thing to be worrying about while Billie-Jo was lying there in that state.

Evidence was heard from the paramedics and the police officers first on the scene. They all seemed to share the same opinion that Sion was oddly calm and seemed more interested in making sure the roof of his Rover MG was put up before it started raining. Sion also reportedly went to sit alone in the car whilst neighbours consoled his traumatised daughters. The prosecution claim he did this in order to provide a reason why Billie-Jo’s blood or other forensic evidence may be in the car. They also recounted that a work colleague had turned up at the house completely oblivious to the afternoon's events and Sion did not mention to them what had happened.

The prosecution painted the picture of a devious and manipulative man who had been hot headed and violent in committing the crime and cold and calculating in his efforts to cover it up. They claimed he lied from the start. Originally when questioned he had claimed he did not go back into the house after returning from picking up Lottie from her clarinet lesson and only changed this detail after Annie and Lottie said he had done in their statements. All the talk from Sion Jenkins about prowlers in the vicinity the prosecution said was fabricated, and the police had no records of any complaints. The jury was also left with a strong hint that there was a possibility that Sion Jenkins had a sexual interest in Billie-Jo. 

The defense responded with their own version of the narrative. That of a loving foster father in shock after the horror of what had happened to the girl he cared for. Their forensic experts said the microscopic blood splatter found on Sion’s clothes was the result of Billie-Jo exhaling as Sion lifted her head. They made the point that the person who committed such a brutal attack would be covered in blood. Blood had splattered all over the patio and patio door so why not over Sion Jenkins if he was the murderer? The defense counsel made the point that the tent peg was in full view of anyone who came through the gate into the garden and that blood was found on both ends of the tent peg. The assailant would surely have had blood stained hands and cuffs, which Sion Jenkins did not. The murderer may well have also had paint splashes on them. Only one paint mark was found on Sion Jenkins clothes but it was an older stain.

Interestingly no fingerprints were found on the tent peg which the defense said was odd, considering the supposed frenzied attack Jenkins was accused of carrying out. They also noted that the tent peg was on top of the coal bunker which was at the bottom of the garden and was not on hand near Billie-Jo. If Jenkins did go into a rage he would have had to travel a long way to retrieve the peg which did not fit with the out of control narrative the prosecution were spinning. If Sion Jenkins was the conniving and devious man he was being made out to be, they said he would have surely not left the murder weapon right next to her body in case his finger prints were on it. 

The defense said it was not possible for Sion Jenkins to have committed the murder, cleaned and composed himself  in the time frame given by the prosecution. If Jenkins had dropped off his daughter’s friend following the clarinet lesson between 3.15 and 3.20pm, as the friend’s parents say, then there is no way he could have committed the murder. It would have taken at least 4 and a half minutes for him, Lottie and Annie to return home and the trip to the DIY store was at least 15 mins. With the first emergency call at 3.38pm, the defense argued he simply did not have the time to kill Billie-Jo. The original statements from Annie and Lottie largely agreed with Sion’s version of events and backed up the notion that there wasn't enough time for to Sion to commit the murder.

The accusation that Jenkins had used the trip to the DIY store to buy white spirit to create an alibi was misleading as they said, like a lot of people, he had simply forgotten that he already had a bottle tucked away in a cupboard.

Evidence was presented regarding incidents of break ins and prowlers in the neighbourhood. An article from the Guardian in February 1997 was mentioned, which explicitly told accounts of local residents complaining of lurkers and prowlers. As was mentioned earlier, the Jenkins family had several incidents when their back gate was found open, including one time when a pane in the patio doors was damaged. The incident was brought up as potentially linked to Billie-Jo’s murder. 

The man known as Mr B was brought up as a potential suspect. Mr B was said to have had a very confusing conversation with the owner of a Bed and Breakfast not long before the murder and had walked off towards the town centre which would have taken him past the Jenkins house. When he was being questioned by police he displayed some odd behaviour and of course the fact that pieces of a plastic bag were found lodged up his nose, just like Billie-Jo, was very suspicious. He was also found to have pieces in his underwear. It certainly seems like a very strange coincidence, but that is what police and the prosecution said it was, as several witnssess placed the man at least 15 minutes from the scene at the time of the murder. Only one witness placed him nearer the house. Forensic tests were also said to back up the belief that the man was innocent and had nothing  to do with the attack. 

The defence also heard from the first paramedics who attended the scene. One said he noticed two muddy footprints on Billie-Jo’s legs as if someone had been standing on her. Unfortunately no photos were taken of this and the marks disappeared when the body was moved. What was noted was that Sion Jenkins’s shoes were found to have no mud on them during the routine investigation of the crime scene on the day of the murder.

On the 2nd July 1998 41 year old Sion Jenkins was found guilty of the murder of Billie-Jo Jenkins and sentenced to life imprisonment with a miminumn term to be served of 25 years. He was sent to serve his time in the category A Belmarsh Prison, South East London. He was later moved to Wakefield Prison. Before his trial Sion Jenkins had already spent some time in Lewes prison in Sussex until he was granted bail. Things had been tough there and one incident almost saw a fellow inmate take out his eye with a pencil. Belmarsh by comparison made Lewes look like a walk in the park. It wasn’t long before three prisoners attacked the now notorious Sion Jenkins and nearly drowned him in a bath. A cell mate who only spent one night in the same cell as Jenkins sold a story to the News of the World when he was released, saying that Sion had confessed to him about the murder. Sion Jenkins denied this was true and said in an interview given in 2010 that when he complained to the warden at the prison that this had happened he was taken from his cell and put into a filthy segregation room, and the legal letters he was working on were taken from him and never returned. 

Listening to this, many people will find it hard to find sympathy for a man who was a convicted child murderer. There were, however, those who felt the case against Sion Jenkins had been thin. Even people who believed he was guilty were surprised that he wasn’t acquitted at trial due to a lack of evidence. In 1999 Sion Jenkins and his legal team appealed his conviction. The appeal was largely on the basis of the forensic evidence given at the first trial about the microscopic blood droplets on Sion’s fleece. They felt the grounds were strong and were hopeful for a positive outcome, especially after a TV documentary “A Trial and Error” covered the case. The appeal, however, failed and the legal team had to go back to the drawing board. 

The case was then taken up by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). They look into all cases where there could be grounds for another appeal. The CCRC found that in the original trial Sion’s daughters, Annie and Lottie, did not give evidence, and they should have been heard from. Back in 1997, Lois Jenkins apparently told police that her daughters had changed their stories, which originally had backed up Sion’s version of events. Sion felt his ex-wife had persuaded them to do so. After a long four years, in May 2003 Sion Jenkins’s case was sent back to the court of Appeal and a little over a year later, in July 2004, Sion’s conviction was quashed, largely on the basis of the forensic aspect of the appeal. This meant he was released on bail and a new trail would take place. Bail was allowed because the original  judge had granted bail before the first trial.  Interestingly it was made clear that the decision to quash Sions conviction was not on the basis of Annie and Lottie not giving evidence at the first trial. This was deemed as not significant in the outcome of the first trail. 

The new trial started in April 2005  Technology had obviously come a long way in the 8 years since the first trial and the forensic evidence was pulled apart by the defence team. An argument made in the first trial that the blood spots could not have been made by Billie-Joe exhaling as she had a blockage in her lower airway was proven untrue. It had actually been in her upper airway. All the evidence from the first trial was gone over again. The jury could not decide on a verdict and another trail was scheduled. 

The third and final trial began in the Autumn of 2005. In it the defence directly confronted the aspersions hinted at by the prosecution in the first trial that there was a sexual element to the way Sion viewed his foster daughter. He said there was absolutely no evidence that he had sexually abused Billie-Jo and there was no motive for him to harm her.  Though again it was the forensic evidence that was key, specifically what caused the presence of 158 million microscopic blood spots on Sion’s clothing.  The second retrial also ended in a hung jury. This time the prosecution made it clear that they would not seek a fourth trial. Sion Jenkins was acquitted by the Crown Prosecution Service in February 2006. As he gave a short speech to the press, lambasting the incompetence of the police and vowing to find the real killer, he was attacked by two of Billie-Jo’s aunts, Maggie Costner and Bev Williams. They were furious that new forensic evidence was not allowed to be heard in court. They claimed tests now confirmed the presence of bone fragments amongst the blood on Sion Jenkins’s fleece. For them this wasn’t the end of the story, they still believed that him guilty of the murder of their niece.

Sion Jenkins was a free man but he still had accusations levelled at him in the media. Only a week or so after his acquittal his ex wife Lois, who was now living in Tasmania, Australia, with the four Jenkins daughters, gave an interview to the Daily Mail. She excused her ex-husband of hitting her when they were first married.She also said he had an affair with a nineteen year old who was the spitting image of Billie-Jo. This woman, known only as Rachel, also gave an interview in the press detailing her relationship with Sion Jenkins. She called him creepy and talked about how similar she looked to Billie-Jo. None of this was permitted to be used as evidence at the retrial. 

Sion went on to remarry and now lives in Bath, Somerset. After being released he studied for an MA in Criminology and Criminal Justice and an additional MA in Social Research and Methodology. He went on to study for a PHD. In 2008 he applied for compensation for his wrongful convention and for the six years he spent in prison but the request was denied. Before 1988 anyone wanting to apply for compensation on these grounds would have applied to the Home Secretary, who decided on a case by case basis. The Criminal Justice Act of 1988 changed this, so compensation would only be paid if a conviction had been reversed or a person granted a pardon and there was clear evidence of a miscarriage of justice. The procedure was made more complex again in 2006 when  legal aid on compensation claim cases was reduced and a 6 month time limit on evidence used for a claim was introduced.. In other words the burden of proof is very much on the person making the claim. As a result Sion Jenkins decided not to attempt another claim.

So who did kill Billie-Jo? Sion Jenkins says he has looked the person in the eye. In 2008 he gave an interview to the press where he said the man who killed his foster daughter was still in the house hiding when he found her. In the melee after the murder the house was full of emergency personel from both the Ambulance and the Police, uniformed and plain clothes. Sion Jenkins claims after an hour or so following the discovery of the Billie-Jo, one man came out of the dining room and walked up to him.  He told him Billie-Jo was going to be ok and then left the house. He assumed the man was a police officer but afterward he could never be accounted for. Jenkins was asked in the newspaper interview why he hadn't mentioned this mystery man before. He replied he had mentioned this man in his interviews with police back in February 1997 but said it was only years later when he was writing a book about his experiences that he realized the significance of the meeting. He says the man wore a dark navy or possibly dark olive overcoat and was smartly dressed. He had a tie and polished shoes. He remembers what he looked like and his mannerisms, though I I cannot find a description of this man's face.  

In 2012, Margaret Costner, one of Billie-Jo’s aunts who had attacked Sion on the steps of the sold Bailey, did a series of press interviews calling for the police to look at a new potential suspect. Time seems to have caused her to look again at the crime and speculate that perhaps Sion was telling the truth. 

The potential suspect she was referring to was Antoni Imiela, otherwise known as the M25 rapist. Imiela was born in West Germany in 1954 and spent much of his early childhood in a refugee camp, before his family came to the UK in 1961, settling in the North east of the country. He started getting into trouble in his mid teens and was sent to a borstal aged fifteen for robbery. In the mid 1980’s a long term relationship with a partner ended and he lost his job; he then undertook an armed robbery spree across the country. He was eventually caught and went to prison, until he was released in 1996. On his release he got married and lived in numerous places in the south of England. His string of violent sexual assaults of women and girls began in November 2001 until he was apprehended a year later after a neighbour recognised him from an episode of “CrimeWatch”. He was given the name “M25 rapist” because the majority of his attacks followed the M25 motorway through the areas of Kent, Surrey, Hertfordshire and west London. He was sentenced in 2004 for seven rapes and the kidnap and attempted rape of a ten year old girl. He was given seven life sentences.  In 2012 he was also convicted through DNA evidence of the 1987 sexual assault of another woman in South East London. 

At the time of the Billie-Jo’s murder, Imiela lived 32km away from the Jenkins family home and visted Hastings often, as he had friends who lived there. Billie-Jo's aunt says he also matches the description of the stalker her niece had complained was following her. The man was said to be in his 40’s or 50’s and wore a leather jacket. Imiela’s neighbours have confirmed that he also wore a similar jacket during that period. By the time of the attack on Billie-Jo we know hed had comitted at least one sexual assault. Imiela is known to have been attracted to girls in their early teens and he was known to use weapons found at the scene rather than bring his own. He had in the past put a plastic bag over a woman's head in order to subdue her. Antoni Imliela died in prison aged 63 in 2018. 

There was a story in the newspapers back in 2004 that a man in prison for robbery had confessed to murdering Billie-Jo to his cellmate. The man was in Exeter prison and said he killed Billie-Jo whilst he was looking for houses to burgle. Police did investigate these claims but nothing seems to have come from this, so I suspect it was a fabrication.

The mysterious Mr B is also obviously touted as a suspect. He was mentioned again by the defence at the retrial although then he was referred to as Mr X. Police are sure he had nothing to do with Billie-Jo’s death and point to the fact that no trace of her DNA was found on Mr X’s clothing. 

Of course the murderer may be someone that has never been mentioned in conjunction with the case. An unknown stalker or prowler, or perhaps someone else entirely who has remained off the radar. 

The family and some forensic experts have called for this case to be reopened and for items such as Billie-Jo’s clothes to be retested for DNA evidence. There has been no work or developments on it since Sion Jenkins's acquittal in 2006. Speaking in 2017, Billie-Jo’s mother, Deborah, put out a plea for the police to reinvestigate, saying there was nothing to lose and everything to gain.   Former Met detective Peter Kirkman thought it strange that the police hadn’t reviewed the evidence, especially as the case largely hung on forensics for both prosecution and defence. Jeremy Pain, who was the lead investigator on the case, is now retired but says he is sure police will routinely look over the evidence.

Sion Jenkins spoke to the Daily Mirror in 2017 saying he has attempted to reach out to the original witnesses and others living nearby but some have passed, moved away or simply can’t remember the details of what they saw or heard that day. He is bombarded with tips and theories but says he is hoping for clear, decisive evidence to break the case. He is still hopeful and constantly searching for this. 

In the winter of 2008 a memorial bench was unveiled by friends of Billie-Jo in Alexandra park opposite where the Jenkins used to live. It is made out of an old Oak tree by creative artist Joc Hare. The inscription on it reads “Side by side or miles apart, friends are close to the heart”.

This case has flummoxed me like no other I’ve researched. It’s so painfully sad and at the same time a mystery I can’t stop thinking about. I have changed my opinion about it several times  through the writing of this episode and am still unclear about what I think happened. Billie-Jo’s life was taken just as it was starting and in the aftermath it left a family distraught. It was so sad to read 22 year old Lottie Jenkins’s testimony at the 2005 retrial. The emotional and psychological scars from that afternoon in February 1997 were all too evident. I'm inclined to agree with Billie-Jo’s mother: what harm can reinvestigating the case do? DNA analysis has come on so much since the mid 2000’s that there is good scientific grounds for reopening the investigation. Justice for Billie-Jo is surely worth another shot.