Unfair trial for Mitchell, argues Findlay

QC seeks to have failure to move trial or separate charges added to grounds of appeal

News, 11 October 2006

The teenager Luke Mitchell did not receive a fair trial for the murder of 14-year-old Jodi Jones because of the pre-trial media coverage of the case, the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh was told yesterday.

In a hearing on the grounds that should be allowed to go to a full appeal hearing, Mitchell's counsel Donald Findlay QC told the court that the trial should have been moved from Edinburgh as it was too close to where the killing took place in Dalkeith, and that unrelated charges relating to knives and drugs should have been separated from the murder charge because they could have prejudiced the jury against him.

Mitchell was found guilty of Jodi's murder in January last year. He was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison. Both he and Jodi were aged 14 at the time of her death in June 2003.

Leave to appeal has already been granted on a number of grounds including insufficiency of evidence in what was a case of circumstantial evidence, and inadequate directions to the jury. Mr Findlay is seeking the restoration of the other grounds for appeal which were previously rejected by a single judge.

Lord Justice General Hamilton, Lords Kingarth and MacLean, will issue a ruling on the appeal grounds at a later date. No date has been set yet for a full hearing.