THE biological mother of Billie-Jo Jenkins is considering taking a civil court action against the man cleared of her teenage daughter’s murder.
Deborah Jenkins believes that the civil courts offer her a chance of winning a guilty verdict against Siôn Jenkins, Billie-Jo’s foster father, who walked free from court on Thursday. Civil action has been used previously by families who believe that they have been failed by the criminal courts to pursue grievances.
The most recent well-known case is that of Nicholas van Hoogstraten, who was cleared on appeal of the manslaughter of Mohammed Raja, a business rival, but was then held by the High Court to have arranged the contract killing.
Victims’ families have a better chance of succeeding in the civil courts because they have a lower burden of proof. Civil claims require verdicts on the balance of probability, whereas criminal courts demand that jurors are sure beyond reasonable doubt.
There would be the question, however, of whether she and other members of Billie-Jo’s biological family have the financial resources and the single-minded determination required to pursue a time-consuming and costly civil claim.
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Billie-Jo’s biological mother, who put her daughter into care when she was 7, confirmed yesterday that she is considering a civil compensation claim. “That’s in my mind,” she said, before breaking down in tears. She added that her reaction to learning that Mr Jenkins had been cleared of murdering her daughter was “unprintable”.
Mr Jenkins was acquitted this week when a jury at the Old Bailey was unable to decide if he had killed Billie-Jo at their home in Hastings, East Sussex, in 1997.
It was the third time that he had been tried for the murder. In 1998 he was found guilty and jailed for life but he was freed six years later when the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction. A retrial was ordered but last July, and again this week, juries were unable to agree a verdict.
Mr Jenkins, who shared the same surname as his foster daughter but was not related, is now the subject of a bidding war between television stations and newspapers to secure the first interviews. ITV’s Tonight with Trevor McDonald and the BBC’s Real Stories are competing for the television rights in a deal that is expected to earn him tens of thousands of pounds. There is also the possibility of a book deal.
His solicitor, Neil O’May, of Bindman & Partners, said that for now Mr Jenkins was enjoying his new-found freedom from the threat of life imprisonment.
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Mr O’May said: “I don’t think he has taken sufficient breath to be able to focus on what might happen in the future. At the moment he’s living day by day.”
He regarded the chances of Billie-Jo’s biological family bringing an action as “extremely remote”, but added: “Were they to get advice that they had anything close to a case to begin in court, it would be very strenuously opposed.”
The ruling against Mr van Hoogstraten in December was only the third time in English legal history that the High Court identified a defendant as responsible, directly or indirectly, for a homicide when there was no existing criminal conviction against him.
Mr Jenkins is considering legal action to seek redress for having spent the past nine years trying to clear his name, including six years in prison. “Everything is under review, including compensation for all his lost years,” Mr O’May said. “I think that he’s sought legal advice from us on what remedies there might be, given he’s lost nine years. We are considering this very carefully.”
Immediately after his acquittal, Mr Jenkins called for a fresh investigation to find who bludgeoned Billie-Jo to death.
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A leading psychologist gave warning yesterday that Mr Jenkins may suffer from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after winning his case.
Vincent Egan, Professor of Psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University, said that it will take time for Mr Jenkins to adjust to being a free man, having been focused on the same aim for so long. He said that once the initial elation at being cleared has faded the former school deputy head is likely to experience a sense of “incredible anticlimax”.
Depression is a possible reaction to the anticlimax and Mr Jenkins may even suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, he said. “If he’s unlucky, he will suffer symptoms of adjustment disorder such as depressed moods and a sense there isn’t a focus in his life.”