The man cleared of murdering schoolgirl Billie-Jo Jenkins has claimed he has identified a possible new suspect.

Sion Jenkins claimed he spoke to someone he believed was a plain-clothes police officer in his hallway in the confused hour after his teenage foster daughter was found bludgeoned to death at the family home 11 years ago.

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

Mr Jenkins, at the time a 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.

He 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 has only struck me as I researched the book.

“I would like the police to issue a photo-fit and find him.”

Sussex Police has declined to comment on the matter.

Billie-Jo, 13, 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, on February 15, 1997.

In 1998 Mr Jenkins was jailed for life at Lewes Crown Court for her murder but his successful appeal led to a retrial in 2005.

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

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

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

Mr 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.

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.”