Jodi’s savage killer is ‘still a risk’ as he’s denied parole
Victim’s family hail move and slam his ‘fraudulent’ campaign
ONE of Scotland’s most infamous killers has been refused parole in a decision which has been welcomed by the grieving family of his young victim.
Luke Mitchell, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of his 14-year-old girlfriend Jodi Jones, was denied his freedom as he poses a ‘sexual risk’ to women.
He, too, was 14 when he stabbed Jodi to death in woods near her home in Dalkeith, Midlothian, in 2003 and he was later sentenced to serve a minimum term of 20 years before being eligible for parole.
Now 35, he has always refused to admit his guilt and will now remain in prison following the outcome of his hearing before the Parole Board for Scotland this week.
Jodi’s mother Judy Jones had been offered the chance to watch the hearing via videolink but is understood to have declined.
Yesterday the board’s decision was welcomed by the schoolgirl’s family, with one relative saying: ‘If this man was released, I would fear for women.
‘He is a dangerous killer and should remain inside for a long time to come.’
A psychiatric report branded Mitchell a ‘sexual risk’ to women. Police Scotland is also understood to have had an input.
Mitchell had been dating Jodi for four months when he killed her in what judge Lord Nimmo Smith later described as ‘a truly evil murder’.
Jodi had failed to return home on the evening of June 30, and Mitchell claimed to have been alerted to her body by his dog while out looking for her.
She had been stripped, bound and stabbed numerous times. Following a ten-month police inquiry, Mitchell was accused of her murder and was 16 when he was convicted at the High Court in Edinburgh in 2005.
He has lost four appeals but has attracted a significant following of online supporters convinced of his innocence since a TV documentary was aired in 2021. Jodi’s family has been left devastated by the ‘fraudulent’ campaign to clear his name, and had hoped it would not influence the parole board’s decision.
The schoolgirl’s relative added: ‘Since 2021 the family have been tortured almost daily through social media ghouls who are claiming Luke is innocent after a television programme showed a very biased view.
‘These people have ignored the evidence from court and destroyed her family.
‘Our grief has been trampled on and spat out in contempt by those who know nothing. The campaign is fraudulent and built on lies.
‘We hope the parole board took this into account as well as the fact he has been assessed as a sexual danger to women.
‘He has shown not an ounce of remorse and instead has people on the outside terrorising the family on his behalf.’
Another family member said: ‘I try not to pay too much attention to the campaign as their leaders have told a lot of lies about my family. This should draw a line under their campaign but it won’t. But as a family we are relieved at the outcome.’
Yesterday Dr Sandra Lean, a criminologist and adviser to Mitchell, said Jodi’s true killer is still at large.
She said: ‘Luke’s position has always been that he was never a risk because he did not commit this crime, so any assessment of his apparent “risk” now is meaningless.
‘My personal thought is it’s something of an irony spending time and money assessing the “risk” Luke might pose, while, for 20 years, all of the authorities have been ignoring the very real risk that a brutal killer is walking amongst us while an innocent boy, now man, serves time that is not his to serve.’
The Parole Board does not comment on individual cases.
‘We are relieved at the outcome’