Former deputy headmaster Sion Jenkins will go back to court for a third time accused of the brutal murder of his 13-year-old foster daughter Billie-Jo after the jury in his re-trial failed to reach a verdict today.
Jenkins was convicted in 1998 of battering Billie-Jo to death but won a retrial last year after Appeal Court judges ruled the verdict "unsafe".
At his retrial, prosecutors said Jenkins had lost his temper with Billie-Jo while she was painting patio doors and had hit her over the head up to 10 times with an 18-inch iron spike. He then drove off on a shopping trip with his daughters, Charlotte and Annie, they said.
However, Jenkins (48) said he had discovered her blood-splattered body only after he had arrived back home from the trip. He said he had left Billie-Jo alone at home to paint the doors so she could earn money to buy trainers.
He has always denied her murder and his defence team has suggested that the killer was a mentally ill man seen in the area at the time of the killing. After days of deliberation, the jury at London's Old Bailey court were discharged after telling the judge there was no realistic prospect they would reach a verdict. Prosecutors said he would be re-tried for a third time at a date yet to be set.
Much of the case centred around tiny blood spots and flecks of flesh found on his clothes. Scientific experts giving evidence for the prosecution said these were consistent with marks that would be expected to be found on the girl's murderer.
Jenkins, however, claimed the blood could have been expelled from Billie-Jo's nose as he bent over her body in her dying moments. The court was also told Jenkins had a history of violence and had been seen by a family friend lashing out at his foster daughter six months before the murder.
The court also heard that Jenkins was under considerable pressure at the time of the murder. He had been given the job of headmaster at a school in Hastings subject to references but had lied about his qualifications.
Jenkins's wife left him after becoming convinced he was the killer and gave evidence against him at the second trial. He has since remarried Christina Ferneyhough, an art dealer who attended every day of the trial at the Old Bailey.