Mystery over who fatally beat schoolgirl remains as new investigation turns up no leads

The case of who killed Billie-Jo Jenkins will remain unsolved for yet another day after a new police investigation found no new clues.

A ‘fun-loving’ schoolgirl with dreams of making it big as an actor, Billie was found battered to death with an 18-inch iron tent peg nearly three decades ago.

Billie-Jo, 13, was painting the patio doors in the back garden of her foster family’s house in Hastings, East Sussex when she was killed in February 1997.

Her foster father, Siôn Jenkins, was found guilty of her murder and spent six years behind bars before being acquitted in 2006.

With few leads to go on, Billie-Jo’s death has become one of Britain’s most high-profile unsolved murders – and no one wants answers more than her loved ones.

They had placed their hopes on a fresh police investigation launched in 2022 that would make the most of the latest forensic technology.

But it has now concluded after finding ‘no new evidence or opportunities to further progress the investigation’, The Mirror reported.

Det Supt Andy Wolstenholme said today that Billie-Jo’s case, Operation Cathedral, will unlikely be reopened anytime soon.

‘Billie-Jo and her family have remained at the forefront of our minds throughout this review and we share their ongoing desire for justice for Billie-Jo,’ he said.

‘We are grateful for their patience while the case was reviewed and the outcome shared with them.

‘While we are not looking for any new suspects, anyone who has any new information in this case is encouraged to contact Sussex Police by calling 101 at any time, quoting Operation Cathedral.’

Billie-Jo scuffled with her foster father in her final moments, arguing about turning down her music and her getting paint on the windows after he asked her to paint the patio doors for some extra pocket money.

She was discovered in the back garden bleeding, with prosecutors saying she likely died within minutes of the assault.

While one police surgeon who certified Billi-Jo’s death said that in his 26 years on the job, it was ‘without doubt the saddest and most brutal murder I have ever attended’.

Jenkins was the final person to see Billi-Jo alive, he told police, and the first to see her body. He gave conflicting reports about whether he was inside the home at the time of the attack.

Jenkins was sentenced to life in jail over the crime in July 1998. After six years behind bars, he was acquitted following a second re-trial.

Prosecutors argued that the microscopic blood splatters on Jenkins’ fleece jacket and trousers were the result of the former deputy teacher striking the schoolgirl.

Billie-Jo’s mother had long fought for her daughter’s case to be re-investigated, with puzzling clues including 158 blood spots found on Jenkin’s clothing.

But his defence team argued that she breathed the blood on him after he found the dying girl and tended her wounds, a claim a judge at Jenkins’ first appeal disagreed with.

‘I can’t describe it to you, unless you have lost a child, it’s a nightmare,’ she said the year before she died aged 59 in 2019.

‘I want to get justice for her. I want them [the police] to do everything possible.’

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