10/08/2010

Sion Jenkins Compensation Bid Fails

A former teacher who was jailed for six years for the murder of his foster daughter Billie-Jo Jenkins before being acquitted, has been refused compensation.

Sion Jenkins had been seeking up to £500,000 in damages, but the case has been rejected by the Ministry of Justice.

Billie-Jo, 13, was found dead at her foster family's home in Hastings, East Sussex, on February 15, 1997. She had been struck with a metal tent peg and suffered severe head injuries.

Mr Jenkins was convicted of her murder in 1998 and was jailed for life. However, he had denied the charge, claiming that the teenager must have been killed by an intruder. He launched and appeal and won a retrial in 2005. However, jury was unable to reach a verdict in the new trial and when a second retrial, a year later, ended with a hung jury again, Mr Jenkins was freed.

In a newspaper interview in 2008, Mr Jenkins said that he believed the government owed him compensation for his time in jail, which he said meant that he "lost the childhood" of his four daughters, who emigrated to Tasmania with Mr Jenkins former wife, Lois, following the killing.

The Ministry of Justice said that it would not comment on individual compensation claims.

(KMcA/BMcC)

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