Alleged Miscarriages of Justice > Luke Mitchell and the murder of his teenage girfriend Jodi Jones on 30 June 2003.
Luke Mitchell - Interview with Sky's James Matthews
John:
Luke Mitchell gave a Sky News interview to James Matthews
on the very day that Jodi Jones was laid to rest.
3rd September 2003
Mitchell seated by his mother speaks to James Matthews.
Meeting With a Murderer.
Luke Mitchell insisted he did not murder his girlfriend Jodi Jones. Sky News' James Matthews recounts his exclusive interview with the youngster.
It was on the day of Jodi Jones' funeral that I met and interviewed Luke Mitchell.
It had been two months since Jodi's murder, and her family had told him to stay away. They suspected then what a jury would later confirm - that he was her killer.
I'd phoned the Mitchell house and his mother told me that Luke was paying his own, private tribute.
Mother and son agreed that we could film it. So the camera rolled as the teenager lit candles on a shrine to Jodi that he'd created on his dining table. No payment was asked for and none made.
http://news.sky.com/home/article/13287116
Aired on Sky News: Friday, 21 January 2005
Luke's Poem to Jodi
"Goodbye Jodi. Please can you say what happened,
Please tell us who it was, who took your life so cruelly
For no apparent cause.
You had so much to give us, you lived life your own way,
Whoever did this to you, should just be put away.
You didn’t see bad in others, you didn’t like to judge,
We’re sorry Jodi, truly, but we’ll always hold a grudge.
You were taken from us so cruelly,
Please don’t ask us to forgive,
We cannot get this from our hearts however long we live.
You’ve been laid to rest, but not in peace,
We know that just can’t be,
But we’ll say goodbye and forever hope
That justice we will see."
John:
Transcript of Interview with James Matthews - SKY News on 3rd September 2003
JAMES MATTHEWS: It’s 65 days since Jodi was killed, Luke, clearly it’s a tragedy for her family, do you see it as a tragedy for your family as well?
LUKE: Yes.
JAMES MATTHEWS: Tell me about your experience over the last two months.
LUKE: It’s just been worse than a nightmare. At least a nightmare you wake up from eventually but this, you can’t wake up from it.
JAMES MATTHEWS: What’s been the worst part of the last two months?
LUKE: The worst part would be still finding Jodi. That was still the worst part. All the rest of it, the police and accusations and everything I couldn’t care about, it’s just … I just want to find out what happened and who did it.
JAMES MATTHEWS: Do you feel that the finger has been pointed at you as the person responsible?
LUKE: I feel it has been left to the media and public to decide. It is trial by media. They haven’t actually come out and totally accused me, apart from in interviews, the police have accused me but I feel it has been left to trial by media to see what the public decide, who’s guilty and who’s not. The way the police are handling it, they have searched other houses and they have other suspects but I seem to be really the only person they are mentioning by name in specific detail.
JAMES MATTHEWS: But you have an alibi for that night because you were with friends?
LUKE: Yes. I was, first I was waiting just at the end of the estate where I was in full view, cars were passing, people were just getting home from work on buses, then I met up with my friends.
JAMES MATTHEWS: Who vouch for you?
LUKE: Yes, they gave statements the same as mine.
JAMES MATTHEWS: It is a question on everybody’s lips in this community, it is a question you clearly have an answer for. Did you kill Jodi Jones?
LUKE: No, I never, I wouldn’t think of it. All the time we were going out we never had one argument at all, never. We never fell out or anything.
JAMES MATTHEWS: How do you feel at being told to stay away from the funeral?
LUKE: That was a hard blow. I was dreading going to the funeral but I did want to go and being told not to go due to the fact that it would turn the funeral into a circus, a media circus, was bad. It would have been a media circus without me but that was, if it was the family’s wishes, that’s what I was going to do?
JAMES MATTHEWS: You have paid your own tribute, you have written a poem. Tell me why you felt you needed to do that?
LUKE: I just felt I had to say goodbye in my own way.
JAMES MATTHEWS: So what would you say to those who would look at you and think he killed his girlfriend?
LUKE: I just say they are being naïve and not to believe everything you read in the papers. As a lot of folk know from what they’ve said and what’s turned out in the papers, they do change what people have said, not the whole truth is published in papers. It is basically what the people want to hear is what printed.
JAMES MATTHEWS: I suppose the difficulty is from 5 p.m. to whenever Jodie was found, that's a long time to fill and to account for, especially if you lose track of time. The question I suppose for detectives, for people who look at that is could anybody account for every minute in that sort of period? Can you, can you account for every minute?
LUKE: No. Well the police seem to expect people to, as you say, pin down every minute of their life, to expect us to know when we do small insignificant things like doing the dishes, expect us to have a time for that, it isn’t possible to keep a pin of every minute that you do something.
JAMES MATTHEWS: This burning of clothes keeps getting mentioned and there is also the subject of a missing knife, is that your missing knife?
LUKE: No. The burning clothes that wasn’t us. They just stated that a female relative of the suspect admitted to burning clothes.
JAMES MATTHEWS: Was that you or anyone connected to you?
LUKE: No, not that we know of.
JAMES MATTHEWS: Finally, do you miss Jodi?
LUKE: A lot. It’s just, everything I do seems to remind me, her views and everything come up everywhere. Everywhere you look, going about the streets, there are posters. It’s just, I can’t believe … it still feels like a nightmare.
ENDS
John:
Mitchell had been told to stay away from the funeral by Jodi's mother Judy Jones.
Later than afternoon Mitchell with mother, German Shepherd Mia and new
female friend in tow made their way to the cemetery at Gorebridge where
they laid a memorial.
John:
Sky News interview. Corinne Mitchell supports Luke.
John:
Meeting with a murderer.
James Matthews from Sky News interviewed Luke Mitchell on the day of Jodi's funeral.
Luke Mitchell insisted he did not murder his girlfriend Jodi Jones. Sky News' James Matthews recounts his exclusive interview with the youngster.
It was on the day of Jodi Jones' funeral that I met and interviewed Luke Mitchell.
It had been two months since Jodi's murder, and her family had told him to stay away. They suspected then what a jury would later confirm - that he was her killer.
I'd phoned the Mitchell house and his mother told me that Luke was paying his own, private tribute.
Mother and son agreed that we could film it. So the camera rolled as the teenager lit candles on a shrine to Jodi that he'd created on his dining table. No payment was asked for and none made.
Mitchell had turned 15 since Jodi's murder. He had the awkwardness of youth, but was nonetheless charming, obliging and friendly.
I interviewed him, as he sat with his mother's comforting arm around him.
It was an intriguing spectacle for viewers of Sky News - it also aroused the interest of detectives on the Jodi Jones murder squad.
They took formal steps to obtain a copy of the tape and flew to California where they showed it to the man known as the "Human Lie Detector".
Professor Paul Ekman is the world authority on the analysis of facial expression. He is an adviser to the FBI and CIA. In the course of the Jodi Jones murder inquiry, he became a consultant to Lothian & Borders Police.
Edinburgh-based detectives flew to San Fransisco to show my interview to Professor Ekman. He spent hours viewing the tape frame by frame, analysing the miniscule muscle movements on Mitchell's face. In the end, he supported police suspicions about Jodi's boyfriend.
According to Police sources, Prof. Ekman found that amongst the emotions on show by Luke Mitchell was one of delight as he delivered his alibi that was subsequently exposed as a lie.
On the day of Jodi's funeral, he was showing little sign of distress, but he demonstrated pleasure as he told the story he thought would fool the watching audience.
In the field of micro-expression, it's known as "duping delight" - gratification that comes from duping someone.
It was a time in the murder investigation when Detectives had precious little evidence. The findings of Prof. Ekman kept the focus of the inquiry on Mitchell.
There was to be one other showing of the interview - this time before the jury.
Again, formal steps were taken to secure a copy of the tape, and it was broadcast in the High Court. A packed courtroom watched as Luke Mitchell denied killing Jodi Jones, lit candles for her, and recited the poem he'd written, entitled "Goodbye Jodi".
It was the prosecution who wanted to broadcast the interview in court - they wanted to highlight Mitchell's demeanour on the day of Jodi's funeral - his lack of emotion.
"Not a tear, not a quiver" in the words of Advocate-Depute Alan Turnbull, from the teenager he described as a cold, calculating killer.
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