Deputy headteacher Sion Jenkins "spoilt" his foster daughter Billie-Jo, the Old Bailey has heard.

His former wife, Lois, said two of her daughters complained he had bought a ring for her which was more expensive than theirs.

Asked by Christopher Sallon QC, defending: "You thought Sion spoilt Billie-Jo a bit?", Mrs Jenkins replied: "Yes".

Jenkins, 48, of Lymington, Hampshire, denies murdering 13-year-old Billie-Jo, who was battered to death with an iron tent peg at the family home in Hastings, in February 1997.

He is being retried after a jury failed to reach a verdict in July.

Mrs Jenkins, 44, agreed yesterday that they tried to treat Billie-Jo the same as their own four daughters and minimise the fact she was fostered to them when she was eight.

She said that, on one occasion, Sion had bought Billie-Jo and her two eldest girls rings as presents. Her daughters said Billie-Jo's was more expensive.

But Mrs Jenkins added: "We are taking bits out of family life. It was not a significant feature."

Mrs Jenkins, who now lives in Tasmania, Australia, with her children, was giving evidence for a third day.

She said she had never seen her ex-husband hit Billie-Jo, who was sometimes attention-seeking, although he had lost his self-control with her.

She said: "I never saw him touch Billie-Jo in anger or inappropriately."

Mrs Jenkins said she once noticed two small scratch marks on either side of Billie-Jo's neck. When questioned, the schoolgirl had said they had been caused when someone pulled her bag round her neck.

Murdered schoolgirl Billie-Jo Jenkins "flirted" with her foster father, the Old Bailey was told on Friday.

Former deputy headteacher Sion Jenkins is being retried for the 13-yearold's murder in 1997.

Billie-Jo had lived with Jenkins, his wife Lois and their four daughters for five years when she was found battered to death outside the patio doors at the family's home in Lower Park Road, Hastings.

It is alleged that Jenkins struck Billie-Jo forcefully at least five times with a metal tent peg on February 15, 1997, in a fit of rage.

He is then accused of going on a contrived car journey to a DIY store with two of his other daughters before returning home to "discover" Billie-Jo in a pool of blood.

On Friday, Lois, 44, told the court that Billie-Jo was beginning to "use her femininity" to get her way with her husband and other men.

She was shown a police note from July 1997 yesterday in which she told an officer about something her daughter Annie, then 12, had said to her. The note read:

"She discussed with Lois that Sion preferred Billie-Jo to herself and the fact that Billie-Jo flirted with Sion."

Lois said: "I don't recall her saying it in that situation but there was a whole guilty thing and that was part of it but I don't recall her telling me specifically."

She was giving evidence for a second day after flying from her new home in Tasmania, Australia. Jenkins, 48, an ex-deputy head at all-boys William Parker School in Hastings and now of Lymington, Hants, denies murdering Billie-Jo.

He was originally found guilty of murdering Billie-Jo a former pupil at all-girls Helenswood School on The Ridge, St Leonards by a jury at Lewes Crown Court in 1998. The conviction was quashed at the second attempt at the Court of Appeal. The case is now being re-tried after an Old Bailey jury failed to agree a verdict earlier this year.

On Friday Nicholas Hilliard, prosecuting, asked Lois if her former husband had a temper. Lois replied: "Yes, he did have a temper rather he had rages rather than a temper."

Jenkins, a former Tory borough council hopeful and devout Christian, has been supported in court by his new wife Christina.

Also in court has been the natural relatives of Billie, including her natural father Bill Jenkins.