Supreme Court rules out appeal for Mitchell

Three Supreme Court justices refused permission for Mitchell, 23, to take his appeal to the London court.

Mitchell was ordered to serve at least 20 years for the 2003 murder of his 14-year-old girlfriend, Jodi Jones, in Dalkeith.

He applied to the court to hear his case after judges in Scotland did not grant him leave to take his case further.

But the Supreme Court justices have refused to hear the case, saying Mitchell’s appeal against conviction is “closed”.

The judges said permission to appeal should be refused “because the appeal against conviction in this case is closed, for the reasons given by the High Court of Justiciary”.

Jodi was murdered on June 30, 2003, and her mutilated body dumped in woods. Mitchell was locked up for life in 2005. At the time it was the longest single-accused murder trial in Scottish legal history.

Since his conviction appeal failed, his subsequent attempts to have additional grounds of appeal heard in Scotland have been refused and his attempt to have his jail term cut failed.

At the various stages of the case, Mitchell’s legal team have raised questions about the way police interviewed the then 15-year-old boy and about the Crown’s use of identification evidence. They have also previously argued a “Cadder point”, that Mitchell was interviewed as a suspect without access to legal advice before being questioned.

It is unclear whether Mitchell will have a chance to take his case any further to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.