BRITAIN: Former deputy head-teacher Sion Jenkins walked free yesterday after a jury at London's Old Bailey failed to reach a verdict over whether he murdered his teenage foster daughter, Billie-Jo, nine years ago.
In chaotic scenes after the decision was announced at the end of his third high-profile murder trial, Mr Jenkins was attacked outside the courtroom by two of Billie-Jo's natural aunts.
In a defiant statement delivered outside the Old Bailey shortly afterwards, Mr Jenkins (48) accused the police of being "wilfully blind and incompetent" and called for the case to be reopened. "Billie-Jo's murderer has escaped detection because of the dreadful errors in the police investigation and their single-minded and desperate determination to convict me at all costs," he said.
Billie-Jo (13) was battered to death with an iron tent peg in a frenzied attack at the family's home in Hastings in February 1997. The youngster was attacked as she painted patio doors at the rear of the house she shared with her foster parents and their four daughters.
After almost 40 hours of deliberation, the jurors said there was no possibility of reaching a majority verdict. The prosecution said it would not seek another trial and Mr Jenkins was formally acquitted.
As he sat outside the chamber, Billie's natural aunt, Maggie Costner, repeatedly hit him around the head while another female member of the family joined in.
"Revenge was lovely," Ms Costner told a mass of reporters in the street shortly afterwards. "We waited for British justice, it let us down."
During the trial, prosecutors said Mr Jenkins had lost his temper with his foster daughter and had hit her over the head up to 10 times with the 18-inch peg.
But Mr Jenkins maintained he had discovered her blood-splattered body only after returning home from a shopping trip and suggested the murderer was a mentally ill man seen in the area at the time of the killing.
"It has taken more than nine years of struggle and faith for me to be standing here today," he said after the verdict.
The court heard that Mr Jenkins had been under extreme pressure at the time after lying about his qualifications to apply for the post as headmaster.