Billie-Jo Jenkins

Who was Billie-Jo Jenkins?

Billie-Jo Jenkins was an English girl who was murdered at the age of 13. The case gained widespread media attention and remains unsolved.

Billie-Jo was brought up in East London. Her father, Bayard Jenkins, was imprisoned and her mother was unable to cope on her own, so Billie-Jo was placed in foster care from the age of nine with an unrelated family, Siôn and Lois Jenkins, coincidentally having the same surname. She moved with the family to Hastings on the East Sussex coast, where she attended Helenswood School.

On 15 February 1997 she was murdered at the family home. Siôn Jenkins was charged with the murder and later convicted, but always maintained his innocence of the crime. An appeal in 1999 against his conviction failed, but after a second appeal in August 2004 it was quashed by a court as unsafe and he was released on bail pending a retrial. The juries in two retrials were unable to reach verdicts, and a not guilty verdict was recorded in 2006.