Jodi boyfriend 'not two-timing'

Jodi is alleged to have been murdered by Luke Mitchell

The boyfriend of Jodi Jones apparently spent hours on the phone to another girl after he had had sex with Jodi for the last time, a trial has heard.

The High Court in Edinburgh has been hearing a police interview taped with the accused, Luke Mitchell, in August last year.

On the tape he said he was not two-timing Jodi.

Mr Mitchell denies killing the 14-year-old schoolgirl, whose body was found in woods near Dalkeith in June 2003.

Detective Constable George Thomson carried out the interviews with Luke Mitchell in August 2003, when the boy was just 15.

Phone records

He said the teenager said he had had a previous sexual relationship with a girl called Kimberley.

The jury heard Det Con Thomson ask: "During the time you were going out with Jodi did you see other girls? Did you two-time Jodi?"

Mr Mitchell told him: "No"

He said he had not seen Kimberley since New Year and the last time he had phoned her was "about January-ish".

Advocate Depute Alan Turnbull went through phone records which suggested that between January and June last year there had apparently been 79 telephone calls between the two.

Mr Turnbull said Mr Mitchell and Jodi had had sex on the Saturday night, two days before she was killed on 30 June.

Compass scratches

He said that when Jodi left in a taxi the accused phoned Kimberley's grandmother's house and it appeared they were on the phone more or less continuously between 2207 BST and 0130 BST that night.

During the taped interview Mr Mitchell also answered questions on self harming.

He said he had scratched the numbers 666 on his upper-right forearm with a compass.

He said someone at school had dared him to do this and that he had also stubbed out cigarettes on his hand a few times as a "party trick".

The murder charge alleges that Mr Mitchell, 16, attacked Jodi in woods near Roan's Dyke.

He denies that and claims that at the time he was in, or near, his home, and that Jodi was murdered by person or persons unknown.

He also denies charges of possessing knives in public places and being concerned in the supply of cannabis resin to other school pupils, including Jodi.

The trial resumes on Wednesday.