A Jury trying Sion Jenkins for the murder of his teenage foster daughter Billie-Jo was sent home again last night after failing to agree a verdict.

The jury, which has so far deliberated for 37 hours and 16 minutes, will return today to begin its eighth day considering the case.

After being sent out last Monday, the jury was given a majority direction by Mr Justice David Clarke last Thursday.

He told the jurors only ten of them had to agree on a verdict.

Yesterday morning the judge issued a further instruction to the six men and six women jurors.

He told them there was no time limit for their deliberations but, if they could not reach a verdict on which at least ten of them were agreed, they must let him know.

The judge said: "You are under no pressure of time. The court is imposing no limit on you.

"If you do need any help, you have only to ask."

Former deputy headteacher Jenkins, 48, of Lymington, Hants, denies murdering 13-year-old Billie-Jo in February, 1997.

She was battered over the head at least ten times with an iron tent peg while painting patio doors at the family home in Hastings, East Sussex.

Jenkins was jailed for life following a trial in 1998.

He was freed on bail and a retrial was ordered after his lawyers won a second appeal in July 2004.

A jury at the Old Bailey failed to reach a verdict last July at his first retrial.

The second retrial, currently being held at the Old Bailey, began three months ago.