Jodi tied up with trousers, court told
By Shirley English
Wednesday December 15 2004, 12.00am GMT, The Times
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THE legs of a pair of trousers were used to tie the arms of murdered schoolgirl Jodi Jones behind her back, a court was told yesterday.
Mark Heron, who works in the identification branch at Lothian and Borders Police, told the High Court in Edinburgh that he visited the murder scene at about 4am on July 1. He said: “Her hands were behind her back. The right leg of the trousers was tied in a single granny knot around the left wrist. The left leg of the trousers was twisted round the right wrist.”
The teenager’s mutilated body was found naked apart from a pair of socks pulled down to her toes. Other items of clothing, including pieces of a T-shirt, underclothes, trainers and a broken pair of spectacles, were scattered around the wooded area where she lay behind a bloodied wall running next to a popular footpath called Roan’s Dyke, in Dalkeith, Midlothian.
Jodi, 14, from Easthouses, Dalkeith, was found by members of her family and Luke Mitchell, the teenager accused of her murder, on June 30 last year.
Luke Mitchell, who was Jodi’s boyfriend, denies strangling and stabbing her repeatedly before and after she died. He claims he was at or near his home in Newbattle, Dalkeith, when Jodi was murdered by a person or persons unknown.
He also denies charges of being in possession of knives in public places and supplying cannabis to school friends, including Jodi.
The trial before Lord Nimmo Smith continues.
Using ‘granny knots’, one imagines, would’ve been learned in the cadets that Luke attended, and I dare say he had read up about it in his leisure time given he was the Davie Crocket, outdoors type (very much enjoyed camping, hunting, fishing, dog-walking, motorbikes, cars . . . liked outdoor pursuits generally). He probably read about outdoor and survival pursuits, learning how to gut fish, skin rabbits (he owned skunting knives for this) and had told friends that he knew how to kill a person; he even said he could imagine getting stoned and killiing someone ‘just for a laugh’ (this was testified in court). Moreover, it was crystal clear that Luke had a genuine interest in knives — one might even say that he had an unhealthy interest in them (Jodi herself had confided in a friend that she found his large knife collection weird and concerning) — and was trying to emulate his brother Shane, who too had a substantial knife collection. Essentially, what I’m saying is that the murder had Luke written all over it, especially when added to what we know about Luke’s nature and personality (which I’ve catalogued upthread) and the overwhelming circumstantial evidence that was led at trial against him. It’s not surprising that he was found guilty by a majority verdict (9/6, I heard) and his subsequent appeals have failed. When I consider every facet of the case, I am convinced that Luke is guilty beyond reasonable doubt.