The foster mother of murdered teenager Billie-Jo Jenkins has broken a six-year silence to reveal her enduring agony at the brutal killing.

Lois Jenkins also says her daughter has been forgotten amid the continued hysteria surrounding the case.

Billie-Jo was just 13 when she was battered to death with a metal tent spike by her foster father, Sion Jenkins, at the family home in 1997.

Jenkins, headteacher designate at all-boys William Parker School in Hastings, is serving life after being convicted of murder at Lewes Crown Court in 1998.

Speaking for the first time, Mrs Jenkins says Billie Jo has been "completely forgotten" amid the hysteria surrounding the case, which has included repeated protests of innocence by Jenkins and details of the case being re-examined in fine detail by his lawyers.

Mrs Jenkins, who has since divorced her husband, condemned the media and the legal system for imposing suffering on her other children and she recalled in minute detail the events leading up to the moment her daughter was found dead at their home in Lower Park Road, Hastings.

However, she said the most difficult aspect was finding out her husband's lies about his life. He did not attend prestigious Gordonstoun or Kent University and did not have a BA Honours degree, a post-graduate degree or further qualifications.

Mrs Jenkins said: "The most disturbing fact that I was faced with was that the person with whom I had spent 14 years of married life had fabricated his past. Qualifications and experiences had been inflated and altered, some simply invented.

"I searched for paperwork and application forms in an attempt to disprove this news but there it was, in black and white, impossible to explain or deny."

Mrs Jenkins made light of the domestic abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband, an outwardly respectable church-going Conservative.

She said: "When Billie-Jo came to live with us I believed my family was stable and strong, or at least I thought it was.

"Now I know that this is not enough. It took Billie-Jo's death to make me realise that domestic violence can never be excused or tolerated."

Mrs Jenkins recalls receiving the phone call from her husband telling her of "an accident" on February 15, 1997 and urging her to return home promptly.

She said: "I think the call came at about 3pm. I was walking back along the seafront with the girls and the dog.

"They were tired but happy, eating chips and chattering as we sauntered back to the car. When my phone rang I answered in my time, thinking it would be one of their sisters or their father asking when we would be home.

"How wrong I was. The chill in his voice prickled the hairs on the back of my neck and the two girls sensed my shock and panic.

"'You must come home immediately', my husband said. 'Come quickly, Billie's had an accident'.

"'What kind of accident? What has happened?' I asked. 'I think she fell off the table'. 'Have you called an ambulance? What's wrong with her?' I started to panic and almost shouted."

Today, Mrs Jenkins says life is stable but she still dreams of seeing her daughter blossom into adulthood.

She said: "This coming March, Billie would have been 20. I can only dream about what she would have looked like and what she would be doing now."

Campaigners fighting for Jenkins's release from Wakefield prison in West Yorkshire dismissed Mrs Jenkins comments.

A spokesman for the Justice for Sion Jenkins campaign said: "It presents a flawed argument based on a very personal argument."