A jury heard graphic accounts of the horrific injuries sustained by teenager Billie-Jo Jenkins at the Old Bailey murder retrial of her foster father.

The 13-year-old schoolgirl suffered 20 injuries to her body, including six caused by blows to her head.

Pathologist Ian Hill said the top half of her skull was fractured "a bit like an egg shatters" as he gave details of the post-mortem examination.

Billie-Jo, a pupil at Helenswood School on The Ridge, St Leonards, was killed as she painted patio doors at the family home in Lower Park Road, Hastings.

It is alleged by the prosecution that her foster father, Sion Jenkins, 47, battered her to death with a metal tent spike on February 15, 1997, in a fit of rage.

Jenkins, former headteacher designate at William Parker School in Parkstone Road, Hastings, was convicted of her murder at Lewes Crown Court in 1998 and jailed for life. His conviction was quashed by three Appeal Court judges in July and a retrial ordered.

Yesterday, Dr Hill said Billie-Jo's brain had been badly torn and lacerated in the attack and fracture lines had travelled down to her eyes, ears and nose. He found fragments of skull and brain matted in her heavily-bloodstained hair.

Dr Hill said she had four gaping lacerations - two of which revealed her fractured skull. From another he could see the broken skull and brain. Another - on the right side of her forehead - measured two inches by two inches and was depressed and oval in shape.

One of these head injuries was caused by one or two blows, another by at least one or two blows and the other four by single blows, the pathologist concluded.

Dr Hill said it looked as though the injuries to the front of her head would have been inflicted by her attacker being in front of her.

He said: "Those on top were likely to be caused while Billie-Jo was lying on the ground."

Bruises on her forearm and back of the hand could have been defensive injuries, said Dr Hill.

Jenkins denies murder. The case continues.