Murder of Jodi Jones

The body was behind a high wall in a wooded area. Mitchell found it at around 10.30pm, while he was with members of Jones's family who were out searching for her.[4] The circumstances in which Mitchell was able to find the body were later alleged by prosecutors to indicate his guilty knowledge. The Jones family made it known that Mitchell was not welcome at the funeral. School authorities cited concern about Mitchell's safety in unsuccessfully attempting to prevent his return to school; two months after the murder he was suspended after objecting to being separated from other pupils.

After his discovery of the body, Mitchell was initially questioned as a witness; he quickly became the main focus of the investigation. There had been media speculation that he was the sole suspect, and 10 months later Mitchell was arrested and charged with the crime.[5]

The main plank of the case against him was an attribution of "guilty knowledge"; in finding the body, the prosecution said Mitchell had demonstrated that he already knew where it was. Prosecutors also said that a witness had seen someone resembling Mitchell at the scene, and they accused Mitchell of giving a false alibi. Mitchell's brother testified he had been viewing internet pornography in the house at the time Mitchell said he had been there; under cross examination Mitchell's brother said he would only have done this if he thought the house to be otherwise empty. Mitchell's brother said he had not seen Mitchell in the house that afternoon, thereby failing to corroborate his defence of being in the family home at the time of the murder.[8]

The prosecution said Mitchell had taken an interest in the Black Dahlia case, a 1947 murder of a young woman whose body was severely mutilated in a way that the Crown alleged was similar to injuries suffered by Jones. A knife pouch was also found in Mitchell's possession on which he had marked "JJ 1989 – 2003" and "The finest day I ever had was when tomorrow never came". The prosecution said it would be unlikely for anyone but the killer to remember someone killed with a knife in this way.[9] According to the prosecution, Mitchell's clothes may have been destroyed in a garden incinerator which some neighbours thought was giving off a strange smell. No forensic evidence was recovered from the incinerator, which was an 11" diameter log burner.

In response to the prosecution accusation that only prior knowledge could have explained the way Mitchell was able to discover the body lying behind a wall, lawyers for Mitchell said had been aided by his dog. To allow the jury to explore the plausibility of these claims, a mock-up wall was erected in the Laigh Hall, below Parliament Hall within Parliament House, across the road from the High Court of Justiciary building in Edinburgh's Old Town, where the trial was being heard. A visit by the jury to the murder scene was also arranged. Mitchell maintained his alibi, that he had been at home at the time of the murder.

On 21 January 2005, the jury found him guilty after five hours of deliberation. Mitchell, aged sixteen at the time of his conviction, was condemned as being "truly wicked" by Judge Lord Nimmo Smith. He was also found guilty of a separate charge of supplying cannabis.

Mitchell's sentencing took place on 11 February 2005. Nimmo Smith told Mitchell that he would spend a minimum of 20 years in prison before being considered for parole.

On 15 April 2011, Mitchell's bid to challenge his conviction for murder following a human rights ruling by the Supreme Court in the Cadder case was rejected. His lawyer told the Appeal Court in Edinburgh that his trial was unfair because he had no access to a lawyer during an interview. Lord Osborne sitting with Lord Hamilton (Lord Justice General) and Lord Kingarth told Mitchell that the application for leave to lodge the additional ground was refused. The appellant's appeal against sentence was finally disposed of on 2 February 2011 and in such circumstances there did not exist a live appeal in respect of which leave could be granted under section 110(4).[11]

In November 2011 Mitchell was refused leave to take his appeal to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, on the basis that his previous appeal had been dealt with before the Cadder ruling and could therefore not be re-opened.[12]

In May 2007, a BBC Scotland Frontline Scotland documentary special on BBC One explored a theory – not followed up by police during the initial investigation – that the murder may have been committed not by Mitchell, but by a student and heavy drug user who was alleged to have handed in an essay about killing a girl in the woods a few weeks before the murder. A friend of this suspect saw him soon after the murder and claimed that he was heavily scratched about the face. The documentary also challenged the theory that Mitchell was an obsessive Marilyn Manson fan and had a keen interest in the Black Dahlia murder. The documentary stated that there is no evidence that Mitchell knew of the Dahlia case until after the murder. In the documentary Professor Anthony Busuttil, when asked about the similarities between Jones's and Short's injuries said, "there were major dissimilarities." [13] The Jones family were reported in the Daily Record to be "outraged" at the programme, though the newspaper stated that none of them had watched it.[13]