Sion Jenkins was finding out today whether he is a free man.

Three judges were announcing the outcome of his appeal against his conviction in 1998 for bludgeoning his foster-daughter Billie-Jo to death.

Their judgment at the Court of Appeal in London comes after two-and-a-half days of uncertainty for the former deputy headmaster, who has been fighting to clear his name.

The judges could dismiss the appeal, quash his conviction and free him from his life sentence, or order a retrial.

Relatives of the murdered teenager, including her natural father Bill Jenkins, have watched the nine-day appeal anxiously.

This is Jenkins' second attempt to clear his name.

His first appeal in 1999 was thrown out but his lawyers say new scientific evidence shows his conviction to be unsafe.

The father-of-four was convicted at Lewes Crown Court of battering 13-year-old Billie-Jo to death with an 18in metal tent spike as she painted a patio door at their Hastings home on February 15, 1997.

A key part of the original trial centred on 150 microscopic spots of Billie-Jo's blood on Jenkins' clothing.

Camden Pratt, QC, leading the Crown's legal team, insisted the only way the blood could have been on his clothes was by him battering Billie-Jo.

Jenkins' appeal, led by Clare Montgomery, QC, centred on fresh scientific evidence which she said showed the blood could have been exhaled in the girl's dying breath as he cradled her stricken body.

On Wednesday, Miss Montgomery asked for the conviction to be quashed saying: "This is plainly an unsafe conviction founded on false and misleading scientific data."

The Crown has argued there is little new evidence and the court should uphold the conviction.

Failing that, Jenkins should face a new judge and jury.

Jenkins' legal team say a fair retrial would be impossible after so many years in a case which depended largely on disputed and complex scientific evidence from expert witnesses on both sides.

Miss Montgomery said: "The prosecution scientists who swore on oath before the jury and the first Court of Appeal that there could be no innocent explanation for the blood on his clothing now accept it is a reasonable possibility the blood was expirated as he tended Billie-Jo."

She said if the jury had heard from Jenkins' daughters Charlotte and Annie, it probably would have concluded it was impossible for him to have carried out the crime in the time available.

She claimed his ex-wife, Lois Jenkins, who flew from her new home in Tasmania to testify against her former husband, had brainwashed the children against their father.

Sussex Police officers were also criticised during the appeal for trying to convince Lois Jenkins of her husband's guilt.