Agony of real Billie-jo father

EXCLUSIVE: She had something to tell me. I told her I'd call back. The next day she was dead.

By Amanda Evans
THE real father of murdered schoolgirl Billie-Jo Jenkins last night talked for the first time of the final poignant words he shared with his daughter.

Bitter Bill Jenkins bared his soul on seeing Billie-Jo's foster dad Sion Jenkins, below right, win a retrial as his conviction for killing the teenager was quashed by the Appeal Court.

Bill, 52, is certain Billie-Jo had a secret to share when they spoke by phone on Valentine's Day 1997. Every day he relives that call—and the agony of knowing he never discovered just what was troubling his daughter.

With tears welling, he revealed: "During the phone call Billie-Jo said, ‘Dad, I want to tell you something.'

"As I was in a hurry I just said to her, ‘Tell me tomorrow, darling.'

"I knew that something must be wrong because Billie-Jo would never worry me unnecessarily. But I didn't want a rushed phone chat, I wanted more time to talk to her longer.

"She knew I'd be speaking to her next day so I told her that I loved her and she said, ‘I love you, Daddy.' That's the last thing she said to me.

Battered

"I'd promised to call her back at 3pm the following day but I was painting the kitchen so decided to leave it till later.

"Billie-Jo was killed not long after 3pm and I still wonder about what would have happened if I'd rung her at the right time. I just don't know."

When he later heard the devastating news that 13-year-old Billie-Jo had been battered to death with a metal tent spike at her foster home in Hastings, East Sussex, his mind immediately flashed back to that last phone call.

"I remembered how she'd been wanting to tell me something," said Bill. "And at that moment I just knew that she was trying to tell me something about Sion Jenkins.

"I didn't like him at all. I didn't like his arrogance. He thought he was a better dad than me."

Seeing former deputy headmaster Sion convicted of Billie-Jo's murder—after her blood spatters were found on his clothing—gave dad Bill some sense of justice.

But sitting through the second appeal hearing over the past two weeks brought more heartache, with the verdict being overturned as new evidence showed the blood could have been breathed on to Sion, 47, when he found his foster daughter dying.

Drinking

"Seeing Jenkins day after day has been painful," said Bill. "But I've had my family there and Lisa my partner's been great.

"She's given me strength and helped me get my life back on the right track.

"I was heartbroken after Billie-Jo's murder. My world just collapsed around me. One minute I'd been getting my flat ready so she and her younger sister Margaret could be with me, the next I was burying her."

Ironically within a week of the tragedy the flat was a burnt-out wreck.

Bill admitted: "I fell asleep with a fag in my hand. It was an accident—I'd never have deliberately done it because it was the place I'd planned for Billie-Jo to live in. It meant the world to me."

Clearly upset, Bill spoke movingly about his "beautiful, bubbly daughter who dreamed of being an actress".

And he frankly told of how she'd been put into care when she was just six because his marriage to her mum Debbie had collapsed amid arguments, drinking and prison spells.

Debbie got 15 months for cheque card fraud when Billie-Jo was four. She later packed her bags and left, saying she couldn't cope.

Bill says he did his best to look after the children but Billie-Jo, her sister Margaret and half-brother Daryl were voluntarily handed over to social services.

He served a three-year sentence in the early Nineties for assaulting a policeman and admits he absconded several times "to check on his girls".

"I know I'm not a perfect father-but nobody's perfect," added Bill, who now lives in Canning Town, east London.

"People have looked down on me because I've a criminal record. But I've kept out of trouble for years now."

In a rose garden not far from Bill's home—and close to where daughter Margaret now lives with an aunt—there is a wooden bench dedicated to Billie-Jo bearing a plaque that reads:

"Taken out of our hands but still in our hearts."

Margaret, 16, told us said: "I come here sometimes and spend some time just thinking.

"I keep two pictures of Billie-Jo so she's always with me. She's my best friend, my special angel—and I still talk to her every day.

"Before I go to bed I have a little prayer and say, ‘Goodnight, Billie-Jo—you're the best sister in the world. I love you.'"

Dad Bill often tends Billie-Jo's grave at the City of London Cemetery in nearby Manor Park.

Yesterday's visit was especially emotional as he placed flowers on the ground and vowed to get her a headstone to mark what would have been her 21st birthday year.

After a few quiet moments remembering his daughter, Bill said: "It's very hard coming here but I find it helps to talk to her when I'm sad.

"I feel appalled that Sion Jenkins was allowed to appeal twice and we face all the pain and trauma of another trial.

"We now have to put our faith in the British legal system. Billie-Jo can't rest in peace properly until her killer is brought to justice."