The verdict: Luke was a dark and dangerous character.. he was irresistible to teenage girls; BUT TEEN TURNED EVIL WHEN TOLD 'NO' By Maggie Barry KILLER Luke Mitchell was a violent thug - but girls flocked to be his lover.
The teenager's reputation as a moody rebel captured the hearts of girls in Dalkeith.
But behind his mask, Mitchell was a woman-h ater who tried to force his lovers to have sex at the point of a knife.
And he loved his celebrity status as the number one suspect for Jodi's murder.
Schoolgirl Jodi's pals wept as they told how he swaggered round the Midlothian town after the murder.
Mitchell would ask 14-year-old Jodi's friends: "Do you know who I am?"
A police source said: "For a 14-year-old, Mitchell showed unbelievable arrogance after the murder.
"Girls were even more attracted to him and he made the most of it."
Mitchell was eager to get back to the school playground after the summer holidays to boast that police had failed to arrest him.
One pal said: "Jodi was dead and he was swaggering around acting as though he was enjoying his reputation as a murder suspect.
"He was even out wearing a T-shirt with 666 on the back which just shows how sick he is."
This fact barely gets a mention At the age of 14, Mitchell was having sex with two girlfriends - one of them Jodi - who knew nothing about each other.
Within days of Jodi's murder he had replaced her with another girl.
This was Laura W who it was reported later became “estranged” from sadistic killer Luke Mitchell & who apparently was diagnosed with a “severe depressive disorder” And as Jodi learned to her cost, Mitchell did not like to be told "no".
Police believe it was Jodi's angry reaction at learning about his other girlfriend which led to her death.
and/or maybe she refused to have sex with him Jodi had been unaware when she began dating Mitchell that he already had a girlfriend who looked "almost identical".
And his "other woman", just 15, only learned of Mitchell's relationship with Jodi after she died.
Mitchell started going out with Kimberly Thomson in 2002 and even brought her to stay at his dad's house in Livingston after a double date with a pal to the cinema. He bragged about how alike the girls were.
This was Robert Gilhooly & his girlfriend During the trial, the jury saw Kimberly's school photo which was almost indistinguishable from family snaps of Jodi.
Mitchell had been dating Jodi for three months when she was killed.
And the last time he had sex with her, just two days before he killed her, he cruelly waved her off in a taxi before calling his other girlfriend.
Mitchell conned both girls into thinking their relationship was special and exclusive.
He also conned Laura W Jodi was in awe of Mitchell's world. He was a highly intelligent student and top of most of his classes at Dalkeith High School.
But he also had a bad-boy image as leader of his group of dope-smoking teens. Jodi's rebellious, experimental phase started soon after she met him.
He introduced her to cannabis, she got a lip piercing and had sex with him.
Within weeks of Jodi's death, Mitchell was having sex with one of her best friends.
Laura WWhen he was banned from Jodi's funeral, Mitchell took his new girlfriend to her graveside knowing it would attract attention.
The blonde teenager clutched a red rose as she stood, wearing a Nirvana T-shirt, beside Mitchell. Ever the showman, Mitchell knelt down to comfort her as she wept while reading cards and tributes from Jodi's classmates.
During the murder investigation, cops found that when Mitchell was 12 he demanded sex from a girlfriend in Livingston, West Lothian. When she said "no", he threatened her with a knife. A police source said: "Mitchell was sexually mature at a very young age. This girl refused to have sex because she was not ready.
This was evidence, not a story sold to the newspapers as has been claimed "But he hated to be told 'no'. He liked to be in control."
Mitchell lived with his mother, Corinne, who split from his dad, Philip, a caravan salesman, in 2002 after 22 years of marriage.
Luke, and his brother Shane, lived with their mum in Dalkeith but he visited his father in Livingston at weekends.
Friends said Mitchell seemed very close to Corinne.
And they claim she turned a blind eye to his increasing drug habit and cannabis dealing. One said: "Corinne doted on both the boys. They could do nothing wrong.
"It was almost creepy how she acted around Luke. They often held hands. She constantly played with his hair, touched his arms and shoulders - it was almost like they were boyfriend and girlfriend rather than mother and son."
Corinne was with Mitchell when he appeared on TV on the day of Jodi's funeral to publicly deny murdering her.
Asked if he had killed Jodi, Mitchell coolly told the Sky News interviewer: "No. I never, I wouldn't."
But while Corrine believed his innocence, others did not.
A friend of Jodi's, who asked not to be named, said Mitchell's attitude sparked a backlash against the family.
She said: "Before his arrest, he was living it up. People have been totally sickened by the sight of him.
"Shop workers even refused to serve his mother when she went to buy petrol."
Mitchell's jotters from Dalkeith's St David's High School were daubed with Satanic slogans.
And in January 2003, Mitchell wrote an essay questioning the existence of God containing passages such as: "People like you need Satanic people like me to keep the balance."
It was also claimed he said he could imagine himself getting "stoned" and killing someone.
A knife pouch with the initials "[Name removed]" - apparently a reference to Jodi - and the numerals "666" written on it was found in his bedroom.
Det Supt Craig Dobbie said: "Jodi's death provided the opportunity to act out a fantasy. The knife wounds were linear and deliberate. They were not inflicted to cause death, they were done after she was dead."
Last night, the only comfort for Jodi's grieving mum Judith, 39, was that no more lives would be snuffed out by evil Mitchell.
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Jodi+Jones%3A+The+verdict%3A+Luke+was+a+dark+and+dangerous+character..+he...-a0127488179
