The solicitor acting for Siôn Jenkins said this week his client is considering an action against the Home Office.

Neil O'May, partner at Bindman & Partners in London, told the Gazette that Mr Jenkins may seek compensation for the seven years he spent in prison.


Mr Jenkins was acquitted of murdering foster daughter Billie-Jo Jenkins last week after the jury failed to reach a verdict in a second retrial.


His conviction in 1998 was quashed on a second appeal in 2004 when a retrial was ordered after a referral by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. The jury failed to reach a verdict in the retrial last year, leading to the third trial. He was granted bail for the retrials.


Mr O'May, who has acted for Mr Jenkins since his first appeal in 2000, said: 'This demonstrates how important it is for the original investigation to have integrity, because when it comes to dealing with a trial nine years after the event, all sorts of evidence was lost. It was unfair to push him through a second retrial, which was very stressful. There was lost forensic evidence, lost memories and lost documentation.


'[My client] feels pretty abused by the system and that his struggle was against an enormous machine which he was badly equipped to deal with. He feels the whole process was deeply unfair.


'The police and prosecution have thrown millions of pounds at this, [whereas] legal aid funds were really marginal.'


Sussex Chief Crown Prosecutor Jane Gallagher said she was satisfied that the decision to take Mr Jenkins to a second retrial was right.