In his first ever newspaper interview, Jenkins reveals that he has identified a possible new suspect for the murder: a dark-haired man he encountered in the hallway of his home in the first fraught and confused hour after the discovery of Billie-Jo's body.

At the time, he thought the man was a plain-clothes police officer, but now he believes him to be Billie-Jo's killer.

'I've been trying to see if there was anything - however tiny - that I missed, a piece of the jigsaw that didn't fit.

'I believe I have found it; I believe I may have looked Billie's killer in the eye,' he says.

It is an extraordinary claim, coming as it does 11 years after the murder - and coinciding with the publication of his book, The Murder Of Billie-Jo Jenkins, Sion's self-serving account of what happened that day.

Some may see this as an attempt to cash in on his notoriety, but he insists he wished only to set down his story for his daughters, in the hope they can be reconciled.

'It's hard enough being convicted of a murder you haven't committed, but for it to be the murder of someone you loved and cared for - well, it's the definition of hell, isn't it?' he says.

'I have written the book to help my daughters understand what happened. I hope one day they can reach out to me.'

Billie Jo was found murdered at the house in Hastings in 1997. Sion has been cleared of the murder. The killer remains at large.