The Murder of Billie Jo - Tapa dura

Billie-Jo Jenkins was murdered at her home in Hastings, Sussex in February 1997. Her foster father, Sion Jenkins, who had just been appointed headteacher of the local boys' secondary school, was arrested and charged with the murder. In July 1998 he was convicted and sent to prison for life. The case went on to become one of the great causes celebres in British criminal justice history. Everyone in the country knew about the Billie-Jo murder and seemed to have their own views about whether Jenkins was guilty or innocent.After a momentous legal battle, in which there were altogether an unprecedented six court hearings, he was finally acquitted in February 2006. Not that that outcome was as satisfactory as it seems. Having already faced three criminal trials, Jenkins had to undergo a fourth trial - a trial by media. At what should have been his moment of triumph, he was lambasted in newspaper and television reports. So the real facts of the case were buried under an avalanche of innuendo and misinformation. Now, for the first time, this book puts on record what actually happened, and explains the whole story from the beginning.

SION JENKINS, who was born in Greenwich, south London, was appointed deputy headteacher at William Parker School in Hastings in 1992. In 1998, he was convicted of the murder of Billie-Jo, the 13-year-old girl whom he and his wife had fostered. He spent six years in maximum security prisons before his conviction was overturned at appeal in 2004. After two re-trials, he was acquitted in 2006.He is now studying for a masters degree in criminology and criminal justice at Portsmouth University. BOB WOFFINDEN, who began his journalistic career in the 1970s as associate editor of New Musical Express, has been writing about wrongful convictions for 20 years. He has helped to secure the release of many prisoners and, uniquely, has won two cases at the House of Lords, one of which established the rights of prisoners claiming innocence to receive visits from journalists.He became involved in the Sion Jenkins case in 1998 after publishing articles, within a week of the guilty verdict, arguing that Jenkins was an innocent man. His books include Miscarriages of Justice and Hanratty - The Final Verdict.