Daughter breaks down in Billie-Jo appeal

Charlotte Jenkins, 18, broke down in the witness box as she tried to recall events seven years ago when 13-year-old Billie-Jo was bludgeoned to death with an 18in metal tent peg.

She said she simply could not remember vast parts of the day Billie-Jo's body was found at the family home in Hastings in February 1997.

Jenkins, serving life for Billie-Jo's murder, appeared to wipe tears from his eyes.

During questioning by her father's counsel, Clare Montgomery QC, Charlotte could not support claims by her father's defence team that her mother Lois had lied to police about evidence from her and her sister, Annie, to undermine his alibi.

Charlotte, ten at the time of the murder, was asked if she recalled telling her mother she "knew" her father had killed Billie-Jo but did not believe he did it deliberately.

She replied: "I may have because I was confused and kept changing my mind. I can't remember. I was confused, remembering the day, wondering whether or not to believe what was in the papers, things like that."

She said at no time since the murder on February 15, 1997 had her father asked her to say anything untrue about the day. He had never asked her about it at all.

She struggled to control her emotions as she was cross-examined for more than an hour by Ms Montgomery at the Court of Appeal in London.

Charlotte, who has dropped her nickname Lottie, had flown to Britain with her mother from her home in Tasmania to give evidence in her father's fresh appeal against his conviction. Mrs Jenkins is expected to take to the witness stand on Monday.

Miss Montgomery claimed Mrs Jenkins gradually coached Charlotte and her sister Annie to alter the original accounts they gave police.

She said their statements "made it almost impossible" that he killed Billie-Jo in a short time-frame on the patio of the family home in Lower Park Road, Hastings.

Police told social worker Mrs Jenkins bloodstains found on his clothes meant only he could have killed her.

Miss Montgomery told the three appeal judges Mrs Jenkins became convinced her husband of 14 years had murdered Billie-Jo.

In turn, she became fearful that Charlotte and Annie's statements could provide Jenkins with an alibi at his trial and he could return as a free man to the family.

Defence counsel suggested Mrs Jenkins lied to police months later by saying the girls' accounts had changed significantly, rendering their evidence unsafe to use at trial.

Miss Montgomery said that in fact the girls' statements had not changed. Only after Kent Police re-interviewed them in February 2002, four years after Jenkins was jailed for life, did that emerge.

However, with Mrs Jenkins refusing the defence a chance to clarify the girls' accounts, they decided not to call the girls at trial because they believed they were hostile to their father.

Jenkins, who was headteacher-designate at all-boys William Parker School in Parkstone Road, Hastings, was found guilty of murder at Lewes Crown Court in July 1998.

The jury heard he had used an 18in metal tent spike to bludgeon Billie-Jo to death on the patio.

It was alleged that during a three-minute visit to the house Jenkins had a row with Billie-Jo, lost his temper, hit her over the head up to ten times and drove to a DIY store with Charlotte and Annie.

No motive for the killing was ever established. Forensic evidence was crucial in convicting him.

The Crown successfully argued 158 microscopic bloodspots found on Jenkins' clothes proved he killed her.

He has always maintained his innocence, saying the bloodspots were as a result of him tending her in her dying moments. In 1999 he launched an appeal but it was rejected.

Miss Montgomery said the jury may not have convicted Jenkins had the two girls been called to give evidence. And she said Mrs Jenkins had "every pressing need" to lie to police about their account because she feared Jenkins' return to the family home.

However, yesterday Charlotte refused to support the defence suggestion her mother had lied to police, saying no one had tried to influence her thinking.

She spoke with a faint Australian accent, having moved to Tasmania with her mother and her three sisters in July 2002.

Asked by Miss Montgomery whether anyone had made her think her father was guilty, she replied: "No. Apart from the media, no."

Questioned on whether anything from inside the house made her think he might be guilty, she said: "I don't know."

Wearing a white pinstripe jacket and black trousers, Charlotte clasped a packet of tissues as she gave evidence in front of a packed Court 4, including Jenkins' parents David and Megan.

Also in court were Billie-Jo's real father Bill and Sussex police detectives Jeremy Paine and Steve Dennis.

Charlotte was led through the events leading up to the killing and the moment when she found Billie-Jo's blood-soaked body.

She had attended a clarinet lesson with her friend before Jenkins picked them up in the afternoon in his white MG sports car.

After dropping her friend off, they returned home with Annie in the car. Charlotte said she remembered going up the stairs leading to the front door with her father.

She went straight to her room to drop off her clarinet before returning downstairs. Asked if she saw anyone else in the house, she said: "Dad. I seem to remember seeing him in the kitchen when he said he needed white spirit but again I'm not sure."

She, Jenkins and Annie left to visit a Do-It-All store to buy white spirit. She said her father had left the house almost immediately after her to drive to the store.

She could not remember whether the side gate was closed but she thought it was open when they got back and discovered Billie-Jo's body.

They took a circuitous route twice round Alexandra Park before Jenkins realised he had no money at traffic lights before Sainsbury's along Sedlescombe Road North and drove back home.

She remembered thinking the journey was "weird". When she returned home, she noticed the gate was open and that it was shut when she had left. She said: "I think the gate was open." The QC said: "Do you remember the image that made you think that?" Charlotte replied: "I could see the rabbit hutch ahead of me."

The defence has always claimed Billie-Jo was murdered by an intruder. They are using evidence of a schizophrenic called Mr X to suggest she was killed by someone else.

Mr X was known to have been in the area at the time of the murder and had a fixation with plastic bags. One of the striking features of the Billie-Jo case was she had plastic bag stuffed deep into her left nostril.

However, Lord Justice Rose stressed to Miss Montgomery there was no forensic evidence at all to link him with Billie-Jo.

Recalling the moment she stepped foot into the house to see Billie-Jo's body, Charlotte said: "I think I went in first. Into the dining room."

On seeing Billie-Jo's body, Jenkins ushered her and Annie into the playroom. At this point her resolve crumbled and a break was ordered by senior judge Lord Justice Rose.

Later, Charlotte was asked whether she told her mother she thought Jenkins was guilty. She said: "I may have but I can't remember the conversation." And when asked: "Did she ask you about it?", Charlotte replied: "I can't remember".

At the end of her evidence, the teenager was told she was free to fly back to Tasmania after Crown counsel Camden Pratt QC decided not to cross-examine her.

She left the court building arm in arm with her mother.

Later the court heard extracts of two police interviews with Charlotte's 20-year-old sister Annie.

Miss Montgomery read from a transcript of Annie's statements.

When asked by the police whether she had told her mother she "knew Sion and Billie-Jo had an argument earlier that day", she said she could not remember saying that.

She added that she could not recall Billie-Jo particularly winding her father up on the day she was killed.

"I don't remember dad being cross with Billie-Jo," she said in relation to his alleged reaction over a row the two girls had about painting the patio doors.

Police also questioned Annie about whether she noticed any blood on her father's hands or clothes at any time during the day.

She answered: "No. I wasn't really looking."

Anthony Scrivener QC, Jenkins's counsel at his trial, will give evidence today. The hearing continues.