Jodi killer given leave to appeal

Mitchell's legal team will fight to clear his name

The teenage killer of schoolgirl Jodi Jones has been granted leave to appeal his conviction, his solicitor has said.

Luke Mitchell, now 17, was convicted in January 2005 of murdering his 14-year-old Midlothian girlfriend.

Jodi was stripped, tied up and stabbed to death in woods near her Dalkeith home. The judge described it as the worst murder case he had ever seen.

Mitchell was ordered to serve a minimum of 20 years for the murder. His lawyers began the appeal process last August.

The appeal paper has now been examined by one judge and will be able to go before a full hearing.

The appeal will go ahead on the grounds which have been passed Nigel Beaumont Mitchell's solicitor

Mitchell's solicitor Nigel Beaumont said most points of his client's appeal paper had passed the examination or "sift".

"It has recently been confirmed that a large majority of the grounds of the appeal have been approved," he said.

"In any event the appeal will go ahead on the grounds which have been passed."

A spokesman for the Appeal Court also confirmed in the Daily Record newspaper that the appeal would go ahead.

Murder sentence

Mitchell denied killing Jodi in June 2003, but was found guilty after a 42-day trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

But his legal team vowed to challenge the conviction just days after the teenager was sentenced.

Mitchell's senior counsel Donald Findlay QC, who prepared the note of appeal, told the court: "So long as that young man maintains to me he did not kill Jodi the fight to clear his name will go on."