'Truly evil' murderer Luke gets 20 years

Newsquest (Herald & Times) (UK)

THE savage killer of schoolgirl Jodi Jones was put behind bars for at least 20 years today.

And passing sentence, Lord Nimmo Smith told Luke Mitchell he had committed "one of the worst cases of murder of a single victim to have come before the court in many years".

Jodi was stripped, tied up and savagely stabbed to death in woods near her home in Dalkeith, Midlothian, on June 30, 2003.

Her death bore similarities to the gruesome "Black Dahlia" murder of 1940s Hollywood actress Elizabeth Short.

The judge said Mitchell's use of cannabis may have played a part in blunting his ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy.

The injuries inflicted after death might have been an attempt to re-create the slaying of would-be film actress Elizabeth Short in Hollywood in 1947 - prompted by Mitchell's interest in Marilyn Manson, an American "shock rock" star, obsessed by the so-called Black Dahlia murder.



Liam McDougall, Home Affairs Editor sundayherald.com
writes:
Silent and defiant to the end, Luke Mitchell denied the family of Jodi Jones the one answer they needed


Killer 'obsessed by occult' - BBC profile of Luke Mitchell
ends with the following paragraph:
Mitchell's cannabis use was said to have escalated after the death and he claimed it doubled to four-and-a-half ounces a week, which was estimated in court to be about 600 joints.