Sion Jenkins denied killing his teenage foster-daughter Billie-Jo and then attempting to cover his tracks.

The former deputy-headteacher was giving evidence at his Old Bailey retrial yesterday.

Prosecution counsel Nicholas Hilliard suggested Jenkins reacted violently when Billie-Jo turned up the radio after he had turned it down as she painted patio doors at the family home in Lower Park Road, Hastings.

Mr Hilliard claimed the pair argued and then Jenkins picked up a metal tent peg lying nearby and killed 13-year-old Billie-Jo in a fit of rage.

Jenkins, 47, is alleged to have then invented a reason to buy white spirits to make it look las if he had discovered her body on his return from a DIY store with his two daughters Annie and Lottie on February 15, 1997.

But Jenkins told the court: "The picture you are trying to present to me is not how it was."

He said he had not rowed with Billie-Jo on the day of the murder and claimed the decision to buy white spirits was made inside the house with Lottie and Annie as Billie-Jo painted the patio doors.

Jenkins said Annie had called out goodbye to Billie-Jo shortly before they left for the DIY store, leaving her to carry on painting.

Mr Hilliard suggested the decision to buy white spirits was an excuse made up by Jenkins.

He said: "By the time you turned down the radio again you had picked up that tent peg and in a terrible temper killed her on the patio."

Jenkins replied: "No I didn't. I left with Lottie and Annie and Annie said goodbye to Billie. Billie was quite happy to be painting."

Mr Hilliard said: "Then, Mr Jenkins, you had to think of an excuse to get out of the house".

Jenkins again replied: "No, that is wrong."

Mr Hilliard said: "It was a made-up excuse by you, Mr Jenkins, because you were desperate to get out of the house to give someone else the opportunity to do what, in fact, you had done."

Earlier Jenkins told the court Billie-Jo was jovial on the day of her death.

He said: "Billie was in a very good mood.

"She was to do a job that she would really enjoy, she knew she was going to meet her friend Ruth later and she knew she was going to buy some trainers."

Jenkins, former headteacher designate at William Parker School in Hastings, also denied violently kicking Billie-Jo on a holiday to France with their friends, the Gaimsters, six months before her death.

The jury has heard that Jenkins reacted one night after returning from a disastrous evening out with his wife Lois to find Billie-Jo had sprained her ankle.

However, Jenkins yesterday said he had never kicked Billie-Jo and the episode had been misunderstood.

Jenkins denies murder. The case continues.