A case that, like the Jeremy Bamber one, has divided web sleuths in the UK as to the prime suspect’s guilt – in this case, her foster father Sion Jenkins (no blood relation). Personally I am utterly torn on this one, so I am curious what other people think here. I shall provide the main details plus some links with useful information. Sorry for the length of this post but it will save some time for those looking for the bare summary.

On 15th February 1997 in Hastings, UK, 13 year-old Billie Jo is murdered in the back garden of the family home. On returning from a shopping trip her foster sisters and father find her on the back patio, her head covered in blood. It is soon clear that she has been bludgeoned with a foot-long, 1-inch thick tent peg. After a few days Sion Jenkins emerges as the prime suspect and he is initially found guilty of murder, only for this conviction to be overturned in 2 subsequent trials.
I have followed this case since it happened and am kicking myself for not saving information as it became available at the time – as if often the case with these, upon re-visiting it I have found much is now missing that could have been of help. However there is still ample information available to ponder, and certainly enough to highlight the problems both sides of the case have had with securing a conviction.

The prosecution asserts that:
– On the afternoon of her death, Billie Jo is painting the external rear doors of the house whilst her sisters and father are indoors with other chores. The sisters state that there is a 3 minute window where their father could have beaten Billie Jo to death outside before taking them on a ‘fake’ errand to a hardware store to establish an alibi.
– The trip to the store is considered a ruse as the route taken was indirect (thereby extending the driving time), and later abandoned in the store car park when Sion realises he doesn’t have any money on him. This trip creates a time window in which he can claim an intruder murders Billie Jo.
– On discovery of the body and calling the emergency services, he behaves very oddly by going back out to the car and sitting in it until the ambulance arrives. This is very incriminating for 2 reasons – no father would leave 2 daughters in a house that could still conceal a murderer; plus by heading back to the car he has established a reason for any blood transference from Billie Jo into the car to have occurred innocently. His rather weak excuse for this behaviour is that he was in shock.
– Blood droplets were found on his jacket which, in the first trial, were deemed consistent with him being the attacker (in the 2nd trial this was corrected to being consistent with Billie Jo exhaling a fine blood mist as he held her on discovery).

These seem strong points against Sion Jenkins but cannot be viewed without consideration of other events that point equally strongly away from him.

On the side of the defence:
– It is quite far fetched to think that a man can bludgeon someone 10 times around the head without anyone in the house hearing it, cleaning up any obvious blood and regaining composure within 3 minutes. He also would have forced a piece of bin liner into Billie Jo’s nasal cavity (more on this later). I can imagine a Ted Bundy type getting away with that kind of timing at a stretch but not someone who has never killed before.
– Yes, the trip to the store is a bit odd, but surely the 15 minutes or so they were out was cutting it a bit fine for a ruse – surely you would go through the motions of shopping, looking round for a bit and wasting at least 30 minutes in total to make it all seem a bit more realistic? I’m sure everyone has got to a cashier before realising they forgot their wallet at least once in their life, it wouldn’t seem that odd.
– I can find no information online about forensics on the tent peg regarding finger-prints, DNA, or otherwise. Surely this is either a massive oversight by LE or, if Jenkins wore gloves, the question of him disposing of bloody gloves is too hard for them to answer.
– Promising leads involving other suspects have been brushed aside – see below.

Finally, there are 2 other very important suspects and linked events that warrant much more investigation that the police have given thus far.
– ‘M25 Rapist’ Antoni Imiela was unknown to police at the time of the crime and his profile fits in a number of ways.
o His girlfriend lived 2 miles from Billie Jo, and with other friends in the area it is certain he knew his way around Hastings.
o He battered some victims with objects laying around the crime scenes (but never went so far as to kill).
o His victims ranged in age but included 10,13, and 14 year-olds.
o Most importantly, he matches the description Billie Jo had given her parents and sisters of a man she complained was stalking her. This information is pretty huge but has been seemingly disregarded. There were also hang-up calls to the house and an attempted break-in in the weeks leading up to the murder. Again, no further investigation on these has been made public, if any was carried out.

– Mr ‘B’ / Mr ‘X’ (same suspect, different aliases in different trials)
o A person with known mental health issues who lived down the road. He was observed in the park opposite the house behaving oddly at the time of the murder. Is this evidence he wasn’t in the house at the time of the murder? Or is it evidence he was placed right near the scene around the time of the murder?
o He had an obsession with pushing pieces of plastic bags up his nose (this certainly would explain the odd piece found in the victim’s nose).
o Whilst suffering from a mental illness cannot be used to jump to conclusions about his ability to kill, it is important to note that, on being questions by police, a psychiatrist ended the interview and refused further contact with police on medical grounds as he believe the man to be psychotic.
o A strong point against this man being guilty is the question of whether he could avoid any forensic contamination of his own clothes or the scene, however there is nothing available online to suggest the police investigated him to this extent.

So there we have it. On having to create this post it showed me that there are many questions that cast doubt on Jenkins’ guilt, compared to only a couple of strong points in favour of his guilt. I find his behaviour with the car to be the most damning, but this is clouded by inconsistent blood analysis by experts, and a very unlikely 3-minute time limit to perform a sustained, brutal and bloody attack in apparent silence. Here are some useful links with more detailed information on the case:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/did-m25-rapist-kill-billie-jo-jenkins-801572

http://reallifeishorror.blogspot.com/2018/01/what-really-happened-to-billie-jo.html

http://www.justiceforsionjenkins.org.uk/mrb.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/3534203.stm