Luke Mitchell appeals to have prison sentence cut for Jodi murder

Published on Wednesday 28 April 2010 23:03

ONE of Scotland's most notorious killers should have his minimum jail sentence cut for killing his 14-year-old girlfriend, because he was a child at the time of the crime, appeal judges were told yesterday.

Luke Mitchell was given a life sentence and ordered to serve at least 20 years after he was convicted of the murder of Jodi Jones in 2003 in Dalkeith, Midlothian.

Mitchell was 14 when he committed the murder, but 16 when he was found guilty by a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh, and the trial judge, Lord Nimmo Smith, passed the longest sentence handed down to a youth in Scotland at the time.

After judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh yesterday rejected a move to have a further ground of appeal against his conviction heard, a legal challenge was made against the length of his sentence. His counsel, Gordon Jackson, QC, told the court that the question posed was a straightforward one and said: "whether or not it is appropriate to have a 20-year punishment part for an action committed when the person was 14."

The three appeal judges reserved their decision on Mitchell's sentence appeal and will give a ruling at a later date.