Sion Jenkins, the former deputy headmaster jailed for life for the brutal murder of his teenage foster daughter Billie-Jo, today failed in a bid to take his case to the House of Lords.

At a brief hearing at the Court of Appeal, three judges rejected the application by Jenkins, who last year lost his appeal against conviction.

Jenkins was not present for the application, which was before Lord Justice Kennedy, sitting with Mr Justice Dyson and Mr Justice Penry-Davey.

Last December, the same judges upheld a jury's verdict that Jenkins, 41, bludgeoned 13-year-old Billie-Jo to death with a metal tent spike as she was painting patio doors at the rear of the family's home in Lower Park Road, Hastings.

Mr Justice Gage and the Lewes Crown Court jury had heard microscopic bloodspots found on his clothing could only have resulted from Jenkins being close to the girl as she was being struck.

Crown experts said Billie-Jo must have died during the brutal attack and would not have still been alive 15 minutes later, when Jenkins said he had found her body after returning from a shopping trip with two of his four natural daughters.

His appeal hinged on fresh evidence of tests which were said to show that the bloodspots could have come from the dying teenager's breath as he crouched over her.

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