Billie-Jo Margaret Jenkins (29 March 1983 – 15 February 1997)England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916–2007 was an English girl who was murdered in Hastings, East Sussex in February 1997. The case gained widespread media attention and remains unsolved.
Her foster father, Siôn Jenkins, was originally convicted for the crime, but after two retrials in which the jury was unable to reach a verdict he was formally acquitted. He has been denied compensation on the grounds that there is no evidence to prove his innocence. He holds the rare distinction of having been acquitted despite never having been found not guilty by a jury. A second charge, relating to lies he had conceived about his qualifications in order to get his job as a deputy headteacher, was left to lie on file. Since his acquittal for murder, Sussex Police have maintained that there are no plans to reopen the murder investigation.
Billie-Jo's family have always maintained that Siôn Jenkins is guilty, and blamed the outcome of the final trial on the fact that the judge ruled inadmissible new forensic evidence due to it being introduced too late for the defence team to respond. The forensic evidence showed that the spots of blood found on Siôn's clothing also contained small fragments of Billie-Jo's bone and flesh, which appeared to disprove his claim that the blood had got there from her breathing out onto him as she died. It was this claim that had previously won Jenkins his re-trial. The forensic examination also found that the bloodspots contained tiny fragments of metal from the murder weapon, an iron tent peg. In January 2022, it was announced that police were re-examining the forensic evidence.
Her killing is one of Britain's most high-profile unsolved murders.
Background Billie-Jo Jenkins was originally brought up in East London. Her father was imprisoned and her mother was unable to cope on her own, so Jenkins was placed in foster care from the age of nine with Siôn and Lois Jenkins, who coincidentally had the same surname as her. The couple already had four daughters of their own. She moved with the family to Hastings on the East Sussex coast, where she attended Helenswood School. She had been living with the Jenkins family for five years before the incident. She was described as a "fun-loving" child who wanted to become an actor.
The children of Siôn Jenkins and friends of Billie-Jo said that Siôn had been violent as they grew up and had used corporal punishment against them. Two schoolfriends of Billie-Jo said that she had confided in them that Siôn had punched her and scratched her neck, and that on one occasion she had come to school with blood on her face, saying that Jenkins had held her up against a door after she had told him to stop slapping her pet dog. The schoolfriends also reported that on multiple occasions she would come to school with bruises on her arms and legs, claiming they were from arguments with her father. They testified that Billie-Jo had once written "Hate" on her knuckles and "I hate my dad (Sion)".
Jenkins would later admit slapping Billie-Jo in anger, and then revealed that he occasionally hit the children with a slipper or with a ruler. His wife Lois also described his "vein-popping" anger when he lost his temper with Billie-Jo. Family friends also stated that Billie-Jo had once been kicked aggressively in the ankle by Siôn while on holiday in France in August 1996, despite her ankle being sprained at the time.
Siôn Jenkins worked as the deputy headteacher of local boys' comprehensive William Parker School in Hastings. It later materialised that he had lied about his qualifications on his CV to get this job, and had recently repeated the lies on a new application to become the head of the school, which was being processed. He had previously been suspended from his school as a teenager due to behavioural issues.
Jenkins had stood as a Conservative Party candidate in local elections.
Murder On 14 February 1997, Siôn and Lois Jenkins had argued over Billie-Jo, whom Siôn would later describe to police as "difficult." After arriving home from a trip the next day, Siôn said he asked Billie-Jo to turn down her music and evidence later indicated he had been infuriated when she had refused. She had been painting the patio doors at the family home, 48 Lower Park Road in Hastings, East Sussex, that afternoon, but Jenkins found she had got paint on the windows and said later that her painting was "a mess."
Shortly after this, the body of 13-year-old Billie-Jo was found in the back garden of the house. She had been battered over the head with an iron tent peg five times while painting the patio doors. The tent peg had been left out on the patio earlier in the day by one of the other children in the family. Billie-Jo died within minutes of the assault.
Police asked her foster father Siôn Jenkins to make a public appeal, although shortly after this he came under suspicion, including from his wife, and became the main suspect. He had been the last person to see her alive and the first adult to find her body. On 24 February, he was arrested on suspicion of murder. He originally claimed he had not been at the house at the time, before admitting that he had been there that afternoon. He was charged with murder on 14 March.
Siôn told police that he found Billie-Jo in a pool of blood on the patio. A police investigation revealed erratic behaviour by him around the time of the incident and the discovery of 158 microscopic spots of Billie-Jo's blood, found on his clothing. On the day of the murder, Siôn was driving two of his natural daughters home from a clarinet lesson. Billie-Jo had stayed at home to paint the patio doors in the rear garden, in order to earn extra pocket money. According to the police, Jenkins launched the assault on her when he returned home, while his two other daughters waited in the car outside the front of the house. He then returned to the car and took the two girls to a nearby DIY store, yet took no money with him.
Police say that he did this to provide himself with an alibi, supported by the fact that he inexplicably drove around the nearby park in a circle and had taken an unusual route which extended the journey time. Siôn claimed that they had gone to buy some more white spirit, despite the fact he already had some in his garage. He said that when he returned, he found Billie-Jo dead. Police said that the idea that a stranger broke into the garden, found a weapon and killed Billie-Jo during the same 10 minutes Jenkins was away, apparently escaping without anyone noticing, was implausible.
Police also discovered that Siôn had displayed other bizarre behaviour after the murder. Inexplicably, the first thing he did after finding Billie-Jo dead on the patio was to go back to his car to close the roof on his convertible. Detectives believed that he did this so he could later explain why blood might have been found there afterwards, since he had apparently murdered Billie-Jo and been spattered with blood before getting into his car and driving to the DIY store. By doing this he had also delayed calling 999, only doing so when told to by a neighbour. After finding Billie-Jo, he had not used the telephone next to her to call an ambulance. When he eventually did call 999, he refused to put Billie-Jo in the recovery position or check if she was breathing like the operator had instructed, and when asked if she was breathing responded "I don't know, I haven't looked". It was later alleged that this was because he knew she was already dead and "beyond help" as he had been the one who had murdered her. Only minutes after finding Billie-Jo, Siôn also answered the door to a visiting colleague without telling him anything was wrong. Siôn's conflicting accounts also were called into question; at first he told police that he had never entered the house when returning from the clarinet lesson, but later admitted that he had. Police believed that he may have changed his accounts when he realised that his two other daughters would give differing versions of events. He told the operator when he called 999 that he had been at the DIY store for 35–45 minutes, but it later emerged that it had only been around 10 minutes.
After her murder, Billie-Jo had been found with a piece of plastic bin-liner in her nose. This came from plastic material Siôn had left out on the patio for Billie-Jo to help with her painting. There was also a bucket of water by the murdered girl that the other daughters had been using to clean the car outside the front of the house. Police believed this had been taken to the patio at the back of the house by Siôn.
Legal proceedings against Siôn Jenkins First trial At his trial in 1998, the prosecution revealed that 158 bloodstains were found on the shoes, trousers and jacket of Siôn, and stated that this was impact spatter resulting from the assault on Billie-Jo. Forensic scientists had told the police that they believed the pattern of the blood was the result of impact spatter. The bloodstains had the appearance of a fine spray, and two expert scientific witnesses stated that the appearance and distribution of the pattern was consistent with the suggestion that Siôn was the attacker. Both agreed that it was "typical" of the fine backspatter one would find on an assailant when a weapon impacted with an already bloodied surface. The defence called on two of their own scientific witnesses, yet both stated that the evidence was "not inconsistent" with Siôn being the attacker.
Siôn claimed that any blood found on his clothing was as a result of him trying to help her. However, forensic experts said that similar stains were not found on both of the paramedics or the neighbour who had tried to save her, and that in fact no blood had been found on their clothing at all. The defence carried out experiments to try and prove that the blood could have got onto him from Billie-Jo breathing out onto him as she died.
However, one paediatrician called the defence "impossible" and the pathologist concluded that her injuries would have been so severe that she would not have been physically able to take the breaths to be able to do this and described the experiments as "wholly unrealistic". He stated that she would have had to have inhaled 2.2 litres of air to be able to exhale forcefully enough for the blood to spatter, and said this was "highly unlikely". He stated that, if this was the case, she would have clearly been seen to have been still breathing, which no witness says she was. Ultimately, he concluded:
Siôn claimed at trial that Billie-Jo could be disobedient and "impatient", stating: "She would simply destroy items of clothing or hurt herself, ripping the heads off dolls... if she was asked to do something she might not do it. And if she did something she might become impatient."
The court also heard of the lies Siôn had conceived on his CV at trial, and it was said that he was under "considerable stress" at the time, since he would have been dismissed if his qualifications were found to be fabricated. His new job was due to start the next September. Jenkins had claimed that he had obtained ten O-levels in 1973, but in fact had obtained only three grade C O-levels in art, English and history, one D grade in arithmetic and E grades in French and physics. He also had claimed he had a teacher qualification in English with drama, but in fact it was in physical education, and had claimed he had attended the University of London when he had actually attended the less prestigious University of East London.