Police: Mitchell holiday plan led to Jodi's murder

Key points

• Young lovers were arguing over rival girlfriend
• Concerns killer's school could have done more
• Mitchell's legal team is expected to appeal

Key quote
"Jodi may have found out that Luke had planned a holiday with Kimberley and if Jodi had found out, she would have challenged him." - Detective Chief Superintendent Craig Dobbie

Story in full THE detective who put killer Luke Mitchell behind bars believes the teenager murdered Jodi Jones after a furious row over his plan to take another girl on holiday.

Chief Superintendent Craig Dobbie, in an exclusive interview with Scotland on Sunday, says the confrontation escalated to the point where Mitchell acted out a sick fantasy by murdering and mutilating Jodi.

Dobbie’s analysis has provided the first clear motive for a savage and apparently inexplicable killing that has appalled the nation.

Mitchell, 16, from Dalkeith, Midlothian, was found guilty on Friday of the "truly evil" murder of his 14-year-old girlfriend in June 2003. He slashed her throat with a knife then mutilated her body and face.

Dobbie says he has little doubt Mitchell was a fantasist with a strong desire to kill. After months of investigation, he believes the catalyst for the murder was a row sparked by Mitchell’s admission he was seeing another girl.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard Mitchell was having a relationship with Kimberley Thomson, 15, from Kenmore, Perthshire. They had arranged he would visit her early in the school holidays.

Dobbie said: "Jodi may have found out that Luke had planned a holiday with Kimberley and if Jodi had found out, she would have challenged him. I think he told her at lunchtime that day [of her death] and she wanted to see him that night to talk about it so they arranged to meet."

According to Dobbie, the pair ended up in the woods between their two homes on a path often used by locals. "A situation developed and she suffered a blow to the face," said Dobbie. "She tried to get away but she was struck on the head, possibly with the branch of a tree, then strangled and her throat cut."

Mitchell is a fan of the cult singer Marilyn Manson, who has an obsession with the 1940s killing of Hollywood actress Elizabeth Short, whose body was mutilated. Despite attempts by the defence at Mitchell’s trial to downplay the link, Dobbie is in little doubt.

He said: "No one can escape from the fact that there are glaring similarities between the dead bodies of Jodi Jones and Elizabeth Short as depicted in Manson's watercolours." He added: "This is most horrific."

Since the verdict, concern has emerged about the chain of events at Mitchell’s school, St David’s High, Dalkeith, preceding the murder and whether staff and the education authority could have done more to curb his disturbing behaviour.

Scotland on Sunday can reveal that Mitchell was first drawn to the attention of child psychiatrists at the age of 11 after a fight at primary school. His drug-taking and knife-carrying were no secret among fellow pupils and his fondness for violence and Satanism was known to teachers.

Since the trial it has emerged that he had threatened at least one other girl with a knife before he killed Jodi.

But at a time when official policy was to avoid excluding troublesome pupils, Mitchell was allowed to remain at the school, mixing with other youngsters one of whom would eventually pay for her relationship with him with her life.

One school source said: "Luke’s problem at school was indiscipline. He had control over a group of pupils who were scared of him. But he would also defy teachers. If he didn’t want to do something, he wouldn’t do it. I don’t think the teachers had control of him. I think he was in control."

Friday’s guilty verdict brought a sense of relief to the streets near Mitchell and Jones’s homes yesterday.

It is unclear whether Mitchell’s mother, Corinne, will be able to remain in the local area, such is the strength of feeling against her.

Mitchell was this weekend beginning his sentence at Polmont Young Offenders’ Institution, near Falkirk and will be sentenced in three weeks. He will remain in Polmont until his 21st birthday, when he will be transferred to an adult prison. Because he is under 18 he faces a detention without limit of time, which effectively means life.