Poignant video footage of Billie-Jo Jenkins acting the class fool has been released to mark the ninth anniversary of her death.

Schoolfriends of the tragic 13-year-old issued the previously unseen images in the hope her killer will confess to her murder.

In the video, Billie-Jo fools around in front of classmates at all-girls Helenswood School on The Ridge, St Leonards.

With her hair in bunches, the bespectacled schoolgirl hams it up for the camera by striking various poses with her hands.

The video was shot before she was bludgeoned to death with an 18in metal tent peg on February 15, 1997.

She was struck at least ten times as she painted patio doors at the family home in Lower Park Road, Hastings.

Following three trials and two appeals, her foster father, Sion Jenkins, was last week formally cleared of her murder at the Old Bailey.

The Argus has seen other publicly unseen footage of Billie-Jo taken just hours before her death. The 35- second home video was shot by one of her four sisters, believed to be Annie.

In it, Billie-Jo is seen sitting with a yellow flower behind her left ear on a sofa and wearing a white wool-knit jumper.

She chats happily and in a typically child-like manner about life with the Jenkins', her pets and her foster sisters on the tape which frequently jumps.

There is just a faint trace of her East End accent and she seems confident, happy and self-assured in the video.

She said: "I've got two fish, Ping and Pong, one dog, Buster, and one gerbil. I've got four sisters, Annie, Lottie, Esther and Maya.

"Annie is 12, Lottie is 11, Esther is nine and Maya is seven. I go to school at Helenswood."

The video, shot on a camcorder Mr Jenkins borrowed from William Parker School, was taken at about 11.30am on February 15, 1997. By 4.50pm, Billie-Jo was dead.

The video was seized by Sussex Police to help detect any pre-existing injuries on Billie-Jo's body.

Last week, following the second hung jury, Mr Jenkins, 48, walked free from the Old Bailey after being formally acquitted by judge Mr Justice David Clarke.

There have been calls from Billie-Jo's natural family for Mr Jenkins - former headteacher designate at all-boys William Parker School, Hastings - to undergo a lie test.

But the former teacher, now living in Lymington, Hants, has resisted such a move and is said to be in talks to make a documentary about his nine-year fight to clear his name.

After the trial, in evidence not heard by any of the three juries, it emerged Mr Jenkins was prone to violent outbursts and attacked his ex-wife within weeks of getting married.

Yesterday, campaigners for Mr Jenkins - writing on the Justice for Sion Jenkins website - condemned certain sections of the media's coverage.

They said: "Much of the newspaper coverage was equally judgemental, sceptical of the fact that in the eyes of the law Sion Jenkins is an innocent man."