Mitchell’s latest bid to go free, 14 years after Jodi murdered
Fresh appeal prepared
ONE of Scotland’s most notorious murderers is set to relaunch a bid to clear his name.
Luke Mitchell was jailed for life for the murder of his girlfriend Jodi Jones, 14, who was found mutilated in woodland near her home in Dalkeith, Midlothian.
Her hands had been tied behind her back, her throat cut and her body repeatedly slashed.
Now a new attempt to free Mitchell – who was convicted of the murder more than a decade ago – is to be made by campaigners who believe he was wrongly jailed for the crime.
The body of Jodi, from Easthouses, Midlothian, was found in woods near her home in 2003.
Mitchell, also 14 at the time, was convicted of her killing in 2005 and ordered to serve at least 20 years behind bars.
Now 29, he has consistently protested his innocence and has lodged several unsuccessful appeals against his conviction.
Glasgow’s Miscarriages of Justice Organisation has confirmed it is helping campaigners compile a new report to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC).
The charity believes flaws in the police investigation led to a miscarriage of justice.
One claimed shortcoming is understood to be the failure of detectives to look at other men who, according to the review group, should have been considered as potential suspects but were either never interviewed or not properly investigated.
A spokesman for the charity told the Sunday Times that it is pursuing new leads which it cannot disclose but are likely to form the basis for a new appeal. Those involved in the campaign include Paddy Hill, one of the six men wrongly convicted of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings, and Dr Sandra Lean, a criminologist who spearheaded a previous appeal to the SCCRC in 2014.
Professor Allan Jamieson, a leading forensics expert, has agreed to review the police
‘Still avenues not addressed’
evidence against Mitchell. He told the Mail yesterday that he has ‘agreed to consider what avenues from a scientific perspective may be open to those supporting’ Mitchell.
Mr Hill said: ‘I have looked very closely at this case and I remain extremely concerned and disturbed that Luke was convicted of this crime based on the evidence presented.’
Dr Lean said: ‘There are still avenues that have not been addressed.’
The case – once described by an investigator and a trial judge as the worst murder they had seen – has troubled some observers. The murder weapon was never found and there was no DNA evidence linking Mitchell to the crime scene.
In 2012, Dr Lean and Mitchell’s mother, Corinne, delivered a 300-page dossier to the SCCRC, which included claims that a Mitchell lookalike may have confused eyewitnesses.
The SCCRC ruled that police officers breached Mitchell’s human rights when they questioned him without a lawyer present, but it did not believe he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.