SION Jenkins returned to the exact spot where he is alleged to have battered his teenage foster daughter to death eight years ago.

Court One at the Old Bailey went to the semi-detached house where Jenkins, 47, is accused of murdering 13-year-old Billie-Jo.

The jury of six women and six men were taken by coach to the three-storey Victorian property in Lower Park Road, Hastings, early yesterday on the 11th day of his murder retrial.

Jenkins, former headteacher designate at William Parker School in Parkstone Road, Hastings, is alleged to have struck Billie-Jo forcefully at least five times with an 18in metal tent peg.

He is then alleged to have gone on a contrived car journey with two of his natural daughters to a DIY store before returning to find her body and raising the alarm on February 15, 1997.

Yesterday, Jenkins, dressed in light blue jeans and a casual jacket, arrived at the house with new wife Christina Ferneyhough ahead of the jury.

Miss Ferneyhough waited outside as Jenkins spent 30 minutes inside the house, accompanied by his legal team, including his defence counsel Christopher Sallon QC.

It is understood that it is the first time Jenkins has returned to the house since he was charged with the murder in March 1997.

While inside he examined several rooms and the patio doors that Billie-Jo was painting when she was attacked.

Jenkins stepped out of the house at around 10.40am before going back inside for another five minutes.

He then emerged and talked with his legal team before being driven away with his wife in an unmarked police car.

Some half-an-hour later the jurors arrived and were accompanied into the house by prosecution and defence counsel and by the trial judge, Mrs Justice Rafferty.

The jury was shown round the house, room by room, spending the most time examining the patio where Billie-Jo's body was found.

They were also shown the patio doors the teenager was painting when she was attacked.

Two bottom glass panels on the doors, which were covered in the teenager's blood, have been boarded over but otherwise remain identical to how they were in February 1997.

Sion Jenkins denies murder.

The case continues.