Judges throw out Mitchell's appeal to cut 20-year sentence

TEENAGE killer Luke Mitchell has lost an appeal against his minimum prison term of 20 years.

Mitchell, who was just short of his 15th birthday when he killed 14-year-old Jodi Jones in a brutal stabbing, had claimed the punishment was too severe. Judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh ruled yesterday that he would have received an even longer term but for his youth.

Scotland's second-ranking judge, Lord Gill, had wanted to shorten the sentence because of Mitchell's age but he was overruled by the two less senior judges sitting with him.

Lord Hardie and Lady Cosgrove said sufficient weight had already been given to Mitchell's youth when 20 years was selected for such a horrendous crime.

Relatives of Jodi Jones declined to comment as they left the hearing. Mitchell's mother Corinne said: "The fight goes on."

Mitchell, now 22, murdered his girlfriend Jodi in June 2003 at woods near Roan's Dyke path, between their homes in the Newbattle and Easthouses areas of Dalkeith, Midlothian.

Her throat was slit with between 12 and 20 blows by a knife, and extensive cuts to the face and body were inflicted after death.

The sentencing judge, Lord Nimmo Smith, imposed the mandatory life term for murder, and said Mitchell would have to serve at least 20 years behind bars - the "punishment part" - before he could be considered for parole.

Lord Gill said that, in cases of young offenders, the court had to take particular care to fix a sentence which marked the gravity of the crime and its effects but also left hope that the person could be rehabilitated as a useful member of society and achieve some positive outcome in his life.

He added: "There is no doubt that (Mitchell] is an unsympathetic individual. There is also no doubt as to the strength of public outrage in Dalkeith and beyond. But it is important to keep in mind that he was a first offender who was just under 15 at the time.

"The punishment part appealed against is longer than he had lived at the date of the sentence.

"I have the utmost sympathy for the family of the victim... Nevertheless, I think that the sentencing judge should not have imposed a punishment part of such severity on such a young offender. In my opinion, justice would be done in this case if the punishment part were fixed at 15 years."

Lord Hardie said: "This clearly merits a significantly longer period than a case of murder involving a single stab wound or even two or three stab wounds. The (20-year] period might well be severe but it cannot be regarded as excessive."If an adult had attacked the 14-year-old in this case in the manner described, a much longer period than 20 years would, in my view, have been within the range of discretion available to the sentencing judge."

Lady Cosgrove said: "I do not consider that the sentencing judge can be said to have erred in considering that a longer period would have been appropriate for this crime had it been committed by an adult offender."