PrayersForMaura
Help Find Maura Murray
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BILLIE-JO PAL TELLS OF 'ATTACK BY DAD
MURDERED schoolgirl Billie-Jo Jenkins was left with scratches after an alleged attacked by her foster father, her best pal said yesterday.
Sion Jenkins, 48, allegedly pinned Billie-Jo against a wall and scratched her neck when she remonstrated with him for hitting her dog Buster.
Holly Prior, 22, told the Old Bailey: "She had a scarf around her neck. We had just got off the school bus and she took me into the toilets."
She said the scratches "were really red and sore, as if she had been bleeding", adding: "She told me to swear not to tell anybody."
Billie-Jo, 13, was bludgeoned to death with a metal tent peg at the family home in Hastings, Sussex, in February 1997Earlier, Jenkins's ex-wife Lois told the court she had noticed scratch marks on Billie-Jo's neck but the schoolgirl claimed they'd been caused by her satchel.
She added Jenkins, who denies murder, had a temper and would "flip and lose his self-control".
The jury saw an interview with another friend, Laura Conway, who said Billie-Jo often complained of violence at the hands of her foster father.
Laura, then 14, said: "She got punched in the nose by her dad.
There was blood all over her shirt and around her mouth."