Murder of Billie-Jo Jenkins

Billie-Jo Margaret Jenkins (29 March 1983–15 February 1997) was an English girl who was murdered at the age of 13. The case gained widespread media attention and remains unsolved to this day.

Billie-Jo was brought up in east London. Her birth father, Bill Jenkins, was imprisoned and her mother was unable to cope on her own, so Billie-Jo was placed in foster care from the age of nine with an unrelated family, Siôn and Lois Jenkins, coincidentally having the same surname. She moved with the family to Hastings on the Sussex coast, where she attended Helenswood School.

On 15 February 1997 she was brutally murdered at home. Siôn Jenkins was charged and eventually convicted of the murder, but always maintained that he was innocent. An appeal in 1999 against his conviction failed, but after a second appeal in August 2004 his conviction was quashed as unsafe and he was released on bail pending a retrial. The juries in two retrials were unable to reach majority verdicts and he was officially declared not guilty in 2006.

Legal proceedings against her foster father

On 15 February 1997 Billie-Jo was battered over the head at least ten times with an iron tent peg, while painting patio doors at the family home in Hastings, East Sussex.

Siôn Jenkins has always denied killing her. He told police that he found her in a pool of blood on the patio when he returned from a shopping trip with two of his daughters, Annie and Charlotte ("Lottie"). He became the third police suspect following the discovery of 148 microscopic blood spots on his clothing. During an intensive two-hour interview with Siôn's wife Lois, the police told her that they were sure that he was the murderer, as they said that the blood spots proved his guilt.

The police charged Siôn Jenkins with the murder and he was eventually convicted. An appeal in 1999 against his conviction failed, but a second appeal in August 2004 was successful. The Court of Appeal quashed his original conviction as unsafe and ordered a retrial, with Jenkins being released on bail.

Some experts stated that the blood spots could have come from Billie-Jo's airways as Jenkins tended to Billie-Jo. The jury was unable to come to a majority verdict after 39 hours of deliberating. A second retrial was likewise unable to reach a majority verdict, and at the Old Bailey in London, on 9 February 2006 Siôn Jenkins was officially declared not guilty. The Crown Prosecution Service indicated that no further retrials of Jenkins would be sought, and he was formally acquitted.

It later turned out that at his last retrial, Dr Jeremy Skepper, of Cambridge University, had undertaken tests on 9 of the 148 spots and found bone fragments, but this evidence was produced too late to be submitted for the retrial.^[1]

The police investigation, trials and appeals are estimated to have cost £10m. Seven hundred witness statements were taken by the police, jurors spent 36 days deliberating in three trials, and Jenkins spent 11 days in the witness box giving evidence.

Potential suspects

Around the time of the murder, a mentally ill man was seen in the area, but he was discounted as a suspect, although he lacked a complete alibi for his location on the day of the killing. Siôn Jenkins himself claimed that he and his wife Lois were "so worried about prowlers and break-ins in the area where they lived that they had security lights and window locks fitted to their home".^[2] Siôn's daughter Charlotte stated on video that a side gate may have been open when they returned.^[3]

In his 2008 book The Murder of Billie-Jo, written with investigative journalist Bob Woffinden, Siôn Jenkins suggested that a man that he met in his house soon after the murder may have been the murderer, having hidden in Jenkins' house and then slipped away, even though the man was well-dressed and did not appear to be covered in blood.^[4]

Present situation

Siôn Jenkins currently lives in Southsea, Portsmouth, with his new wife and her son Oscar. He is currently studying for a doctorate in criminology at Portsmouth University.^[5]

On 10 August 2010 it was revealed that The Ministry of Justice had refused Siôn Jenkins compensation claim for wrongful imprisonment – such payment is awarded only when a person is shown to be "clearly innocent".

Memorial seat

On 19 January 2008, in Alexandra Park, Hastings, a memorial seat made from a locally felled oak tree by local artist Joc Hare, was dedicated to the memory of Billie-Jo. The first few words on the seat read, "Side by side or miles apart, friends are close to the heart".^[6]

References

1. ^ "Billie-Jo Murder Trial: What the jury was not told". 10 February 2006. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2006/02/10/billie-jo-murder-trial-what-the-jury-was-not-told-115875-16687011/. Retrieved 5 August 2011. 
2. ^ "Profile: the contradictions of Sion Jenkins - Times Online". timesonline.co.uk (London). 9 February 2006. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article729025.ece. Retrieved 27 December 2010. 
3. ^ "Daughter weeps in Billie-Jo murder appeal". Daily Mail (London). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-308696/Daughter-weeps-Billie-Jo-murder-appeal.html. 
4. ^ The Murder of Billie-Jo by Siôn Jenkins and Bob Woffinden (an ), John Blake Publishing Limited, 2008. ISBN 978-1844546299
5. ^ Tarnished innocence and a very loyal wife: Why has Sion Jenkins' new wife never asked him if he killed Billie-Jo?, Daily Mail, 20 August 2010
6. ^ Friends unveil Billie-Jo memorial

• "Wrong again: Siôn Jenkins is innocent" by Bob Woffinden, New Statesman, 11 July 1998
• "Profile: the contradictions of Siôn Jenkins". London: Times Online. 9 February 2006. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2032514,00.html. Retrieved 2006-02-09. 
• Gibson, Claire (9 February 2006). "Case turned on 158 spots of blood". BBC News Online. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/4661302.stm. Retrieved 2006-02-09. 
• "Allegations cost foster father his family and career" by Sandra Laville and Laura Smith, The Guardian, 10 February 2006
• Jenkins cleared in Billie-Jo case, BBC News, 9 February 2006
• Sion Jenkins fails in compensation bid, BBC News, 10 August 2010

External links

• Justice for Siôn Jenkins, a website that was set up to campaign for his release.