BRITAIN: Mr Sion Jenkins was yesterday given renewed hope in his six-year battle to prove that he was not guilty of the brutal murder of his foster daughter Billie-Jo.
Three Court of Appeal judges quashed his original 1998 murder conviction as "unsafe" in the light of new scientific evidence and ordered a retrial.
Mr Jenkins was returned to his prison cell to await a decision on whether he should be granted bail pending the retrial, which will be held at the Old Bailey.
His solicitor, Mr Neil O'May, said after the ruling: "He knows this is the first step to clear his name and he knows that a jury will deliver the right verdict - that he did not kill Billie-Jo."
Yesterday's decision means that, in the eyes of the law, 46-year-old Mr Jenkins is again "innocent until proved guilty".
Mr Jenkins, a former deputy head teacher, was jailed for life at Lewes Crown Court in July 1998 for bludgeoning his 13-year-old foster daughter to death with an 18-inch metal tent spike as she was painting a patio door at their home in Hastings, East Sussex, on February 15th, 1997.
It was alleged that, during a three-minute visit to the family house in Lower Park Road, he had an argument with Billie-Jo, lost his temper, hit her over the head up to 10 times and then drove off on a "spurious" shopping trip to a DIY store with two of his four natural daughters, Lottie and Annie. On his return home, it was claimed, he pretended to discover the dead girl's body on the patio.
Mr Jenkins failed in an initial appeal in 1999, but his case was investigated by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which inquires into possible miscarriages of justice, and was referred back to the Court of Appeal. The case against Mr Jenkins was founded on evidence of more than 150 microscopic spots of Billie-Jo's blood discovered on his clothing.
According to the prosecution, they were "impact spatter" caused as Mr Jenkins beat the girl to death. Mr Jenkins claims the invisible droplets were exhaled blood forced from Billie-Jo's lungs as he moved her body in an attempt to help her.
Appeal judge Lord Justice Rose, sitting with Mr Justice Curtis and Mr Justice Wakerley, said the court had heard fresh scientific evidence which undermined the opinion of experts at the trial and the earlier appeal hearing that the blood droplets could not have been caused by exhalation. The fresh evidence showed that, at some time after the beginning of the attack, Billie-Jo's upper airway was blocked and that pressure in her lungs built up behind the blockage.
The judges dismissed a claim that Jenkins was deprived of the chance to call his daughters Lottie and Annie as alibi witnesses because defence lawyers were given the false impression by statements made by their mother Lois Jenkins that the girls had turned hostile towards him.