A jury at London's Old Bailey began deliberating today whether former deputy headteacher Sion Jenkins is guilty of murdering his teenage foster daughter Billie-Jo.
Billie-Jo (13) was battered to death with an iron tent peg in a frenzied attack at the family's home in Hastings on the south coast in February 1997.
She was attacked while painting patio doors at the back of the house she shared with her foster parents and their four daughters.
Prosecutors said Mr Jenkins, who denies murder, had lost his temper and hit her over the head up to 10 times with the 18-inch peg.
He maintained that he had only discovered her blood-splattered body after returning home from a shopping trip and suggested the murderer was a mentally ill man seen in the area at the time of the killing.
It was the third time Jenkins (48) has gone on trial for the murder. He was jailed for life in 1998, but the conviction was quashed on appeal in 2004. A jury failed to reach a verdict in a second trial last year.