GUILTY UK - Jodi Jones, 14, Dalkeith, Scotland, 30 June 2003

[mrC]

as far as i know he dident have books on serial killers that was never mentioned at the trial. The evedence agianst him was he had a marlyn mansion album and wrote some strange jotings and a rather shocking english esay

i wasshocked that this was even considered evedence

and as for finfding the body with a dog well most body are found by dogs

 

[rvlvr]

Very reminiscent of the Satanic panic stuff in the States, it’s beyond embarrassing it was able to play any role in a murder case in the UK in the 21st century.

The stuff about Luke finding Jodi’s body and it being considered suspicious is utterly infuriating too. From The Herald:

Whilst searching the area with the rest of the [search] party, Luke Mitchell claimed that his German shepherd – partially trained to track by a professional handler - alerted him by jumping up against the wall, which Jones was found behind.

This claim was initially corroborated by the family members of the search party. Files show that these statements were changed approximately one month after the event. The original statements, which supported Mitchell’s claim, were put to the witnesses by his defence QC Donald Findlay but they said they were unable to remember or it was not what they meant.

The circumstantial evidence that convicted Luke Mitchell

Luke Mitchell was convicted on wholly circumstantial evidence.

www.heraldscotland.com

I couldn’t say I’m convinced of his innocence but there’s much about his conviction that seems unsatisfactory to me.

 

[mrC]

what icant understand is why the search party was searching for her in the woods i mean why would a teenage girl be hanging around in the woods on her own in the dark if she was alive and at the time they had no reason she wasnt alive

 

[Seanmaccadave]

what icant understand is why the search party was searching for her in the woods i mean why would a teenage girl be hanging around in the woods on her own in the dark if she was alive and at the time they had no reason she wasnt alive

This was the route she normally took to meet Luke. So I'm assuming the family were retracing her steps.

 

[mrC]

if your daughter was late home wouldent the normal thing to do be to phone her friends they dont seem to have donethatseem to have gone straght to the woods bearing in mind she had been late home before it wasnt that unusaul for her to be late home andshe was only 40 minutes late