Knife found near spot where Jodi Jones was murdered

Published on Friday 23 July 2010 23:31

A KNIFE said to bear the name "Luke" has been found in wasteland near the spot where Jodi Jones was murdered seven years ago.

The 14-year-old schoolgirl was stabbed in woods near her home, but a murder weapon was never found.

Her boyfriend Luke Mitchell, who was also 14 at the time, was charged and found guilty of her murder, but has always protested his innocence.

The knife was found by a member of the public in March and officers have been carrying out further searches in the area.

It is understood there is no evidence it had been used in an act of violence, but it is possible it had been lying in the woods since the murder took place.

Police are believed to have carried out DNA tests on the knife, but it is thought that attempts to link it to either Mitchell or Jodi have proved inconclusive.

Yesterday a spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said: "We can confirm that a knife was discovered in the Cousland Road area in Dalkeith in March. Inquiries are ongoing in respect of the knife."

According to sources the name "Luke" was on the knife, but police yesterday said they could not confirm the claim.

Jodi's body was found on a path which ran from her home in Easthouses to Mitchell's home in Newbattle in June 2003.

She had been stripped, slashed, bound and mutilated and her injuries were described by Judge Lord Nimmo Smith in court as the worst he had ever seen.

Speculation mounted over Mitchell's involvement, but he was not charged until several months after the murder.

However, the teenager continued to protest his innocence. He attended a memorial service in honour of Jodi and was pictured laying flowers on her grave.

By the time the case came to trial, it was Lothian and Borders Police's largest in 20 years and the longest single- accused murder trial in Scots legal history.

The picture that emerged in court was of two teenagers who had been united by an interest in alternative music and who had experimented with drugs and sex.

Much was made in court of Mitchell's admiration of the singer Marilyn Manson and it was said that he had boasted in school of knowing how to cut someone's throat.

After he was tried and found guilty, the judge said Mitchell, who was 16 when he appeared in court, was guilty of a "truly evil" murder.

However, there was criticism at the time that much of the evidence was circumstantial.

The lack of a murder weapon was seen as a weakness in the case and Mitchell's family continued to contest the verdict.

His life sentence, with a minimum term of 20 years, was the longest handed down to a youth in Scotland at the time and lawyers acting on behalf of Mitchell are currently appealing his sentence, arguing the term should be reduced.

His team have also made a number of unsuccessful attempts to have his conviction overturned and he has always maintained his innocence.

His lawyers have also argued that the length of the sentence was unlawful because it was handed to someone who was a child at the time of the crime.