ANOTHER VICTIM OF THE COMMON POLICE "GRAB ANYBODY NEARBY" TACTIC

Jurors in the Sion Jenkins murder trial at the Old Bailey were told today that they could be witnessing a historic miscarriage of justice. Jenkins, 47, a former deputy head teacher, is being retried for the murder of his foster daughter Billie-Jo, 13, who was battered to death as she painted patio doors at the family home in Hastings, East Sussex, in 1997. Jenkins, now of Belgravia, central London, was jailed for life in 1998 but the Court of Appeal ordered a new trial last year.

Christopher Sallon, QC, making his closing speech for the defence, said the case had the features of a miscarriage of justice. These included pressure being put on police to solve the crime quickly because of the public outrage.

Scientists and medical experts had been unwilling to admit they could have been wrong in the light of new findings, he said. Mr Sallon said that it appeared some of the investigators had put their careers and reputations first. He told the jury: “We say that a grave doubt has been established as to whether Sion Jenkins committed this crime. “In this investigation there have been oversights and mistakes which makes your task an extremely difficult one.”

The jury had heard evidence not heard by the first trial and he listed 12 reasons why jurors could not be sure of Jenkins’ guilt. These included lack of motive, the time-factor of three minutes to commit a “frenzied and psychopathic” murder, a history of prowlers in the area and inconclusive scientific evidence. “The prosecution have totally failed to produce any evidence which begins to explain why Sion Jenkins should have hit his daughter with such terrible force,” he said.

Current report here


Background report:

"The Court of Appeal has ordered a new investigation into the actions of a mentally ill man who was the police's first suspect for the murder. Lawyers for Jenkins have also obtained expert forensic analysis that challenges the prosecution's key evidence about bloodstains found on the teacher.

The third plank of the Court of Appeal challenge by Jenkins' legal team is two of his daughters, who the defence claim can provide their father with an alibi. They will be cross-examined and will give live evidence for the first time at the appeal hearing later this year. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates suspected miscarriages of justice, referred the case to the Court of Appeal last year after re-examining the evidence given at the trial, and the fresh evidence produced by the defence. Nevertheless the police are adamant that they got the right man and the Crown Prosecution Service will be defending the conviction in court.

If Jenkins were to be freed at the hearing, which is expected to take place in the summer, it will be hugely controversial and lead to the obvious question: if he did not murder Billie-Jo, then who did? The brutality and apparent randomness of a crime committed by a churchgoer and a respected member of the community shocked the nation. At his trial in Lewes Crown Court, the jury heard that Billie-Jo's body was discovered on the patio at the back of the family home, where she lived with her foster family: Sion, his wife Lois, a social worker, and their four daughters.

The prosecution successfully argued that Jenkins, now 46, had returned to the house in the afternoon of Saturday 15 February 1997 with two of his daughters, Annie and Lottie. He entered the house, where Billie-Jo had been painting the patio doors, and in an uncontrollable rage bludgeoned her death. He then took his two daughters out to a DIY store in order to create a false alibi for himself. On their return to the house he found the body and called 999 for help.

The prosecution was unable to suggest any reason why Jenkins might have committed the murder, although after his conviction it emerged that he had struck out at his wife on a number of occasions and had once kicked his stepdaughter. The police suggested that he simply lost his temper, possibly provoked by Billie-Jo playing loud music.

The crucial forensic evidence against Jenkins at his trial was the discovery of 158 microscopic bloodspots on his clothing. A forensic scientist successfully argued that the thin mist of droplets was created as Jenkins swung the 18in tent peg, striking his foster daughter at least nine times.

Jenkins' legal team challenged the forensic evidence in an appeal in 1999, but the court rejected the challenge. Since then, fresh evidence has emerged following inquiries by the defence team, headed by the lawyer Neil O'May, and investigators from the CCRC.
One of the principal issues surrounds a paranoid schizophrenic man who had been seen sitting in a park within eight minutes' walk of the murder scene at the time of Billie-Jo's death. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested by the police after a guesthouse owner living on Jenkins' road reported that he had been behaving strangely on the night of the murder. He was later eliminated from the inquiry after Sussex Police found at least three witnesses who said he was in the park at the time of the murder.

But it has since emerged that when the man was arrested and placed in cells he tried to stuff into his mouth a piece of plastic that he had been keeping hidden in his clothing. It was later confiscated by police. This is considered potentially significant because part of a plastic bin liner was found buried deep in Billie-Jo's left nostril. The CCRC has now been asked to investigate whether the man had a fixation with plastic bags.

The man, who resisted arrest, was never questioned because he was considered medically unfit. Items of his clothing were forensically tested, but no bloodstains were discovered. But the defence believes that he may have destroyed some clothing. There are also questions being asked about the accuracy of the timings given by witnesses who saw him in the park.

There is also a dispute over the evidence given by Jenkins' daughters, Annie and Lottie, now aged 19 and 17.
Neither the police nor the defence called the girls to give evidence at the trial, instead relying on a police video interview, which was interpreted as giving Jenkins a few minutes' opportunity to murder Billie-Jo.

The CCRC re-interviewed the girls in 2002 and the defence now believes that the original defence team were "wrong-footed" or misled at the trial and that the teenagers' testimony provides their father with an alibi for the time of the murder. Annie and Lottie will be cross-examined at the Court of Appeal in the summer and it will be up to the judges to decide whether their evidence is admissible.

The third area of dispute is over
the forensic evidence. In the appeal court, two professors from Sheffield University will argue that evidence given at the original trial was wrong. The forensic specialists will say that air trapped in Billie-Jo's dead body, possibly by a blood clot, could have been released by her foster father as he attended her, and thus have produced the thin mist of blood droplets. They will also question why Jenkins did not have more blood on him considering the huge amount of fluid lost during the savage attack.


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