Killer Luke Mitchell eyes legal loophole to overturn conviction

Mitchell's appeal was thrown out more than two years ago and earlier this month appeal judges confirmed that he must stay locked up for at least 20 years before he can apply for parole.

That should have been the end of the line - but today defence QC Margaret Scott asked the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh to allow a new challenge.

Mitchell, 22, now hopes to exploit a ruling by the Supreme Court that suspects must have the right to call in a lawyer before being questioned by police.

Papers lodged in court note that when interviewed in the aftermath of Jodi's death Mitchell was only 14 and had no legal representation.

They also refer to a previous court ruling which described the behaviour of police as "outrageous".

But, Mitchell claims, the interview was used to provide crucial corroboration for the Crown's circumstantial case against him.

Advocate depute Lesley Shand QC, for the Crown, urged judges not to allow any new ground of appeal, because it had come too late.

Ms Scott said the whole point of the appeal court was to remedy miscarriages of justice and the court had a wide discretion.

The new challenge could be heard, she insisted, because it had been lodged in court before the decision in Mitchell's sentence appeal, so the case was still live.

"There is no good reason, in my submission, to draw the line any earlier," said the lawyer.

Lord Hamilton, sitting with Lords Osborne and Kingarth, will issue a ruling at a later date on whether there should be a full hearing about the rights and wrongs of the 2003 police interview.

Fourteen-year-old Jodi's naked, bound and mutilated body was found in woods beside a path which joined her house in the Easthouses area of Dalkeith with the Mitchell home in the Newbattle area.

After months of suspicion cannabis-smoking Mitchell - also 14 at the time of the murder - was charged and eventually brought to trial at the High Court in Edinburgh the following November.

A jury heard that Jodi, arms tied with her own trousers, had suffered terrible injuries - before and after the frenzied knife attack which killed her.

Trial judge Lord Nimmo Smith said photos of the girl's injuries were the worst he had ever seen.

Jailing Mitchell for life the judge ordered that he serve at last 20 years before applying for parole - the longest sentence handed down to a youth in Scotland.

Rejecting Mitchell's appeal against conviction in December 2008, judges said detectives had carried out an "overbearing and hostile interrogation" in a bid to make him confess.

"Some of the questions put by the interviewing police officer can only be described as outrageous," said Lord Hamilton.

But the judges said their criticisms did not amount to a miscarriage of justice.