A man who has stood trial three times for the murder of his teenage foster daughter claims to have identified a new suspect in the case.

Sion Jenkins today claimed he has identified a possible new suspect in the murder of 13-year-old Billie-Jo, 11 years after her killing at the family home.

Jenkins said he spoke to a man who he thought was a dark-haired, plain-clothed police officer in his hallway in the confused hour after Billie-Jo Jenkins was found bludgeoned to death.

But now, coinciding with the publication of his book, The Murder of Billie-Jo Jenkins, Jenkins said he believed he may have come face-to-face with her murderer.

Billie-Jo was found in a pool of blood with head injuries inflicted by a metal tent peg on the patio of the family’s large Victorian home in Lower Park Road, Hastings, East Sussex, on February 15, 1997.

Jenkins, at the time headteacher-designate at all-boys William Parker School in Hastings, has maintained his innocence and insisted Billie-Jo must have been killed by an intruder while he visited a DIY store.

In 1998 he was convicted at Lewes Crown Court of murdering her and jailed for life but had a retrial in 2005 after successfully appealing.

However, the jury failed to agree a verdict and a second retrial ended the same way in 2006, allowing him to walk free.

Speaking to the Daily Mail today on his belief of a possible new suspect, Jenkins said: “In my statement, I talk about being in the hall and talking to a police officer.

“I say he was not in uniform, but I was aware he was a police officer, so he must have told me that.

“Everyone else I describe in my witness statement - the uniformed officer, the female police sergeant, the ambulance man - gave their own witness statements, but this man I describe has never been traced.

“It only struck me as I researched the book. I would like the police to issue a photo-fit and find him.”

Sussex police would not comment directly on the book.

Sources have said that after such an exhaustive investigation and legal process any new evidence surfacing seemed a remote possibility.

A central part of the case focused on a fine mist of microscopic blood spots found on Jenkins’ clothes.

The Crown claimed the blood sprayed on to him as he bludgeoned her in a fit of temper, but the defence argued the spots came from bubbles of blood exhaled from Billie-Jo’s airways as he cradled her.

Jenkins, 49, who now lives with his second wife, Tina, in Lymington, Hampshire, insists there was never the window of opportunity open to him to murder Billie-Jo, who would now be 25.

He said: “It simply wasn’t there. People can talk about blood spots as much as they like. I know they were there, but I also know I didn’t murder Billie.”

Following the killing, his ex-wife, Lois, emigrated to Tasmania with their four daughters, Annie, Charlotte, Esther and Maya, who have chosen to have no contact with their father.

He said: “My daughters had to live with the idea that their father was a convicted murderer. Once that was overturned, they should have been allowed to move forward.”

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