"THE words coming out of his mouth were enough to chill the heart.
His voice flat and emotionless, Luke Mitchell was describing to me the moment he discovered the body of his girlfriend, mutilated and abandoned on the muddy earth.
For the schoolgirl who died an unspeakable death, horrifically mutilated, there was no expression of love from Luke Mitchell - and no tears.
This was Luke's story in his own words - the account the jury never heard as the teenager never gave evidence during his trial.
'My torch lit up the path like daytime and I was about 12 yards from Jodi when I saw her lying there,' he began. 'She was so white. Her throat had been slit and her head was to the side.
'Her eyes were staring up at me and she was naked but for a pair of socks, I think... no, she wasn't wearing anything. Her body was so white and she was just staring and staring.
'I shouted to the others but I couldn't tell them I'd found Jodi because I didn't want to upset her gran, but she said she wanted to come over the wall.
'The others held her back but she scrambled over the wall and said if her granddaugher was there she wanted to be with her.
'She sat down beside Jodi and cradled her in her arms.
I guess the family are suspicious of me because my dog Mia was the one who found Jodi and I was the one who first saw her lying there.' I interviewed Mitchell months before he had been charged with the murder of Jodi, and days after he had been questioned by detectives hunting for her killer.
Aged 15 at the time, the Luke Mitchell in front of me was an adult in everything but name. Chain smoking and dressed in baggy jeans and a dark-coloured T-shirt, he exuded confidence bordering on arrogance.
Yet all the time his eyes flicked towards his mother Corinne, as if seeking reassurance from the woman with whom he obviously had an extra-special bond.
Mitchell and his mother were like a well-rehearsed double act. As Corinne Mitchell ranted about the unfair treatment of her son, Mitchell would pace the floor as he vented his anger at the way the police had dealt with him.
Then his mother would touch him lightly on the arm and he would, as if by magic, calm down.
And as he gave his version of his whereabouts the night Jodi was brutally murdered, he constantly looked to her for reassurance, particularly when recalling the time he left the house to meet his girlfriend and the time he went on to meet his friends.
In the first moments of meeting Mitchell I was struck by how confident he was.
After a day at school he knew he was about to meet a journalist, but he walked into the room with a nonchalant air.
As I shook his hand, he gave me a cursory glance before sitting in a chair diagonally across from his mother.
It was clear he was a very sexually aware young man. I immediately felt uncomfortable as his eyes slowly looked me up and down. Mitchell may be a child but his sexuality, arrogance and misplaced maturity make him appear far older than his tender years.
There were a few flashes of childlike behaviour. But they only came as he was distracted by Mia - the dog he claimed picked up Jodi's scent and led him to her body.
As his story unfolded, it was clear he was a master of manipulation. His story was just too word-perfect. It was also, as has now transpired, a tissue of lies.
This was a 15-year-old who never buckled once during interviews with some of Scotland's most experienced policemen. The more police pushed him, the more arrogant he became.
He boasted to me: 'After a few hours I told them, "charge me or let me go".'
Mitchell leaned forward in his chair and stared intently at me as he told me how police had made his life 'a misery' and how they tried to relate to him through stories of rap star Eminem, shock rocker Marilyn Manson and pop singer Holly Valance.
He said: 'The cops asked me about my relationship with Jodi's friend Laura.
They kept asking me about the Eminem song Kim, the song where he fantasises about killing his wife.
'They asked me about the follow- up song in which Eminem sings about the "two of us", meaning him and his daughter. They asked me about Laura and if I wanted it to be just the two of us and asked if that was why I killed Jodi.
'It was all rubbish. Jodi and I would still be together if she was here today.' Detectives were astonished by how arrogant Mitchell was during interviews. Even when confronted with evidence he remained defiant.
He seemed to realise police were trying to relate to him as a teenager and find some kind of common ground.
However, as Mitchell saw himself as an adult, he found the tactic amusing and gained a sense of confidence as the interrogation went on.
Mitchell took to pacing the floor again as he told me how he had 'got really mad' with police.
Clenching his fists he said: 'I started to get really mad after about four hours and asked them to charge me if they had anything to charge me with.' It was clear Mitchell enjoyed playing cat and mouse with detectives. He said: ' One copper stood, looked me straight in my face and said, "We've got you. We found your semen on her bra.
We've found sperm similar to yours." I laughed and said, "If it's similar, it's not the same then, is it?" ' He told how detectives showed him a video reconstruction of how it would have been impossible for him to see Jodi's body in the dark woods with only a torch - implying he must have known exactly where she was lying.
He said: 'Jodi's body was replaced with a tailor's dummy and I pointed out to police that I could see a limb. That' s when they switched the video off.'
But then, chillingly, he revealed that he, Jodi and their friend Laura had been talking about funeral arrangements a few nights before the murder.
He said: 'What happened to Jodi was so ironic because the Thursday before she died we were all talking about what records we would want played at our funeral.' I could picture him that night, talking in the bedroom with Jodi - taking a perverse pleasure in knowing the fate that awaited her.
He said police took a lock knife from him after being tipped off by friends.
But he added: 'The bloke who said this is a fantasist. Another of his friends told police Jodi and I were arguing all the time. But that's not true. We never had a cross word.' Mitchell also denied he was taunting police when he left a note with flowers for Jodi which quoted from Kurt Cobain's journals: 'The finest day I ever had was when tomorrow never came.' He said: 'The only reason I left it was because she loved that line. I wanted to be with Jodi and nobody else.' It was the first time in our interview that Mitchell spoke of any affection for Jodi. But then, to change the subject, he spent ten minutes talking about newly learned computer skills - just like any other teenage boy - before asking his mother for the keys to her 4x4 Land Rover.
Then, nonchalantly, he walked outside, started up the engine and drove at high speeds around nearby waste ground. It seemed, yet again, that Mitchell was playing at being an adult.
When he returned, he told his mother he was going to see his friend Laura and, since it was on my way, I offered to give Mitchell a lift.
In the car, he said very little about Jodi, continuing to talk about his computer course. When the car came to a standstill, he leaned over and gave me a hug before jumping out. Just four weeks later, he was arrested for Jodi's murder.
I truly believe Mitchell thought he could get away with it. As we parted, he couldn't resist having the final word. A last gesture, and his last chance to goad the police:
'I was never going to break down in public - I'm not that kind of bloke.
'They made a mistake and thought I was just a normal teenager.'
https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-127809851.html 
