The detective who led the original probe into the murder of 13-year-old Billie-Jo Jenkins has spoken of his regret that the case remains unsolved.
Retired officer Jeremy Paine still hopes improvements in forensic science will nail the killer who battered Billie-Jo to death with an iron tent peg in February 1997.
She was in the back garden of the Hastings home in East Sussex she shared with foster dad Sion Jenkins, his wife Lois and their four daughters.
He was convicted of the murder and jailed for life but he always denied the crime and was acquitted in 2006 after two inconclusive retrials.
Sussex Police are doing a forensic review of the case, the first for 15 years.
Mr Paine, who appears tonight on a Channel 5 documentary about the case, said: “This was a tragic and brutal act of violence. Billie-Jo had her whole life in front of her.”
He said the programme made him appreciate how much people still remember about Billie-Jo 25 years later, mourn her lost life and seek justice for the schoolgirl.
Mr Paine said the documentary goes through the investigation and presents the evidence so viewers can “make their own mind up”.
It includes the 999 call from Mr Jenkins in which he says: “My daughter’s fallen or she’s got head injuries. There’s blood everywhere.”
The case turned on 158 tiny spots of Billie-Jo’s blood found on Mr Jenkins’ fleece, trousers and shoes.
The defence said it was caused by a fine spray of blood as he tended to her.
Other forensic scientists believed the blood pattern was the result of “impact spatter”, saying the shape and position showed they got there as Mr Jenkins was standing over Billie-Jo and hitting her repeatedly.
Mr Jenkins is understood to have declined to appear in the film, which includes extracts from a book he co-wrote about the case.
Who Killed Billie-Jo?, Channel 5, tonight at 9pm.
