IS THIS MY BILLIE-JO'S KILLER?

DEFIANT Sion Jenkins last night revealed the face of a mystery man he is convinced killed his foster daughter Billie-Jo.

It's more than 11 years since the pretty 13-year- old was bludgeoned to death with a metal tent peg on the patio of their home.

But Jenkins-jailed for Billie -Jo's murder in 1998 then acquitted in 2006 after two retrials-says the features of a stranger he insists was at the scene are ETCHED forever on his memory.

Savage

And today for the first time, with the help of a trained police artist, we publish the image he is adamant will at last solve the savage crime that shocked all Britain.

He claims the man, who he says he initially mistook for a cop, knew details that could ONLY be known by the attacker.

Jenkins declared: "Releasing this e-fit is quite a moment for me because it's the first time I feel that the process of finding Billie's true killer is beginning.

"The person who murdered her will have been watching events unfold over the years, will have seen me come out of prison-and I want him to know I AM out to find him."

Then, Jenkins believes, he will be reconciled with his four daughters- now in Australia with ex-wife Lois- who he has not seen for FOUR YEARS.

In an exclusive interview he detailed his intriguing theory on the killer AND his terrifying years in prison alongside a string of notorious murderers including HAROLD SHIPMAN, JEREMY BAMBER and IAN HUNTLEY.

Clammy

As he relived the moments after Billie-Jo's body was found at the family house in Hastings, East Sussex, on February 15, 1997, Jenkins told us: "This man appeared out of nowhere shortly after the ambulancemen arrived.

"He ALREADY KNEW where my daughter was-that she was lying on the other side of the dining room doors. And he KNEW that she'd been attacked because he reassured me that she 'was going to be all right' without me telling him a thing.

"I remember him like it was yesterday because it was such a cataclysmic moment.

"His face is etched forever on my memory because he was one of the first people there. He was smartly dressed in dark clothes and I assumed he was a plain clothes policeman.

"I never asked who he was or what he was doing there as I might have done if he'd been dressed scruffily."

Jenkins, 50, describes the man he says he saw as 5ft 10ins to 5ft 11ins tall, medium build and with a South London accent. He says the man had pale, pock-marked skin and a clammy complexion as if he had cream on his face. His hair was dark with flecks of grey, well-groomed and pushed back from his face.

In his original 42-page police witness statement, former teacher Jenkins described bumping into a "dark-haired man" in his hallway after the ambulance crew arrived.

His statement records: "The very next thing that I can recall is being in the hall and talking to a dark-haired officer who was standing near me.

"He was not in uniform but I was aware that he was a police officer so I assume that he must have told me."

In the statement, Jenkins then described the arrival of a uniformed officer later identified as PC Darren Bruce.

Speaking slowly and deliberately Jenkins last night told us: "But in Bruce's own statement about that day, he states that HE was the FIRST police officer to attend the scene and encounter me.

"I didn't realise the significance of my original statement and what was in it until after my first retrial.

"During my original trial I was so distressed and inexperienced in court proceedings, that I didn't notice this 'mystery man' had omitted to give a statement and testify.

"But, after the next hearing, I did. I noticed that everyone on the scene had given a statement bar this man.

"When I realised his statement was missing, I asked my solicitor to request it from the Crown Prosecution Service and Sussex police.

"But their response was that this statement didn't exist; that Darren Bruce was the first officer on the scene; all their officers had done statements and were accounted for; and so, this man was neither a police officer nor part of the ambulance team.

"So who WAS this man? And what was he doing in my house during that time around Billie's murder?

"I've always said that, when I came home with two of my children to find Billie's body, I had this strange feeling someone was in the house.

"So when I saw my witness statement again, I felt I'd found a key, and that I'd opened a little door which would lead us closer to the person who DID murder Billie.

"I hope people will come forward if they know someone who resembles this man, and who could have been in Hastings that Saturday."

Jenkins has vowed he will not rest-nor start to properly grieve for Billie-Jo-until her killer is found. "My aim now is to get justice for Billie," he said. "This will only be over for me when I find the person who murdered her. Only then can I finally start to mourn her.

"I wasn't allowed to Billie's funeral because I'd been convicted of her murder. And what that did was stifle me emotionally and set me on a different emotional course.

Beaten

"I knew I had to stay strong and get my convictions quashed because, until I did that, I could never get out and find her killer.

"I've never visited Billie's grave in East London. I've only recently felt able to visit her memorial bench at Alexandra Park in Hastings.

"But I know I WILL visit her grave one day. Likewise, I believe I WILL find the person who murdered her. I'll never give up."

Jenkins says it's the same determination that helped him survive six years with the inmates at some of Britain's toughest prisons including Belmarsh and Wakefield.

"Initially I had a very difficult time from other prisoners," he recalled. "I was frequently beaten and tormented. On my first night in Belmarsh, after being found guilty, I wanted to commit suicide.

"I'd been dumped in a cell and I thought this was my life for the next 25 years. What made things so difficult for me was that, in the world I'd left people didn't use violence. I wasn't really ready for that."

Jenkins said that early on a gang of vengeful inmates tried to DROWN him. "That was a bad, bad day," he said. "I was taking a bath because I'd been locked up for days without leaving my cell and I felt really grubby.

"But three men came in and pushed me under. I didn't know what was happening and I momentarily stopped breathing.

"I had no idea how to fight so I kicked at the tap and forced myself up, grabbing the neck of one man who I only knew as Panda because he was a con with very dark shadows under his eyes.

"I just reached up, took hold of some skin and pulled this person down. Then I came up out of the water, breathed and pushed him away. By then the other two had bottled it and left. It was a moment that defined how I had to continue if I was to get through this. I knew I couldn't tell the screws because I didn't want retribution. And I was already called enough names without adding 'grass' to the list.

"Another time, when I was in Wakefield, I ended up having a brutal fight with another prisoner because he wasn't prepared to pass me on a spiral stairway.

Bloodied

"He told me to get back down out of his way but I refused-not because I wanted a confrontation but because I'd learned that simply giving way is never the answer in prison.

"So he smacked me in the mouth and attacked me. A fight ensued and I walked back to my cell bloodied."

As well as moments of terror, Jenkins developed bizarre relationships with some of the country's most despised fiends-serial killers like GP Harold Shipman, 'gay slayer' Colin Ireland and cinema boss Peter Moore who blamed his crimes on Friday the 13th horror movies.

Jenkins also found time for mass killer Jeremy Bamber, who shot dead five of his own family, and vicious Michael Stone, who smashed Dr Lin Russell and daughter Megan to death with a hammer in a Kent lane. He crossed paths with Soham monster Ian Huntley, too.

Jenkins was formally acquitted when a jury at his second retrial could not reach a verdict.

And he insists that does NOT leave question marks over his innocence. "I certainly don't feel I'm living under the shadow of suspicion," he said.

Jenkins says his real distress came when he learned by solicitor's letter ex-wife Lois was taking daughters Annie, Lottie, Esther and Maya-now aged 18 to 24-to live in Australia.

"I last saw them in Wakefield Prison's visiting room in 2004," said Jenkins, still bitter and accusing Lois of poisoning them against him.

"I'll never give up trying to reconcile with my children. I'm now remarried, with a stepson of 15. But I think about my daughters every day.

"I wonder if they've got wed, if I'm a grandad-and those are very difficult things to handle."

If YOU recognise the face in the e-fit picture or have any information call Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

* THE Murder Of Billie-Jo by Sion Jenkins and Bob Woffinden is published by John Blake at £18.99. Sion Jenkins has received no payment for this interview.

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