Former deputy head teacher Sion Jenkins walked free from the Old Bailey court in London today after a jury failed to reach a verdict over the murder of his foster daughter Billie-Jo.
Former deputy head teacher Sion Jenkins outside the Old Bailey,after walking free when a jury failed toreach a verdict over the 1997 murder of his foster daughter Billie-Jo. Pic: Cathal McNaughton/PA.
Mr Jenkins, who suffered a rain of blows from Billie-Jo's outraged relatives outside the courtroom, immediately called for a new inquiry into the teenager's brutal murder nine years ago.
And he attacked the police for their "dreadful errors" and their "wilfully blind and incompetent" handling of the case, which has seen him stand trial for the murder three times.
He said outside the court: "It has taken more than nine years of struggle and faith for me to be standing here today. It has been a terrible ordeal and I find it difficult to actually take it in."
Mr Jenkins will not face a retrial for the murder of 13-year-old Billie-Jo.
Two Old Bailey juries in less than a year have now failed to reach verdicts after two retrials.
Mr Jenkins (48), was jailed for life in 1998 following his first trial, but a retrial was ordered by the Court of Appeal in 2004.
He has spent nine years trying to prove he did not batter Billie-Jo at least 10 times over the head with an iron tent peg.
Billie-Jo's natural family was enraged by the result of the latest trial and fists flew as Jenkins emerged from the courtroom.
Today's decision by the Crown Prosecution Service not to seek a third retrial means that Jenkins will remain a free man.
The jury had been trying for 39 hours and ten minutes to agree but gave up today despite having been told by trial judge Mr Justice David Clarke that he would accept a 10-2 majority decision.
Mr Jenkins told police he found Billie-Jo in a pool of blood on the patio where she had been painting doors at the family home in Hastings, East Sussex, on February 15, 1997.
But he became the prime suspect after police discovered that his life was a lie, with his school job obtained using fake qualifications.
One of the fiercest legal battles in British justice followed and cost an estimated £10 million.
PA