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Jodi Jones Trial Shown Manson Paintings Of Black Dahlia

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Anonymous

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Not sure if this belongs here or not, so Mods, feel free to move, bump or otherwise-


Jodi trial shown Manson paintings
The jury in the Jodi Jones murder trial has been shown paintings by rock singer Marilyn Manson depicting the unsolved murder of a woman in 1947.

Detective Constable Adam Brunton said the watercolours illustrate the murder of actress Elizabeth Short in Holywood.

The jury heard that Ms Short was cut in half and suffered other wounds to her face, breast and torso.

Luke Mitchell, 16, who denies murdering Jodi near woods in Dalkeith in 2003, is a fan of Manson's.

The jury at the High Court in Edinburgh viewed paintings, for sale on Manson's website, depicting Ms Short's mutilated body.

The body was completely severed and she was found placed in a grotesque pose with her body in two parts, lying in some open ground
Donald Findlay QC

The actress was also known as the Black Dahlia.

Several of the pictures had the title - Elizabeth Short as Snow White. One, with the title A Smile II, showed the woman as having facial injuries and a mark on her forehead.

Another, entitled - And now a special sort of death for one so fair - showed injuries to the mouth and breast and her torso was shown cut in half.

Alan Turnbull QC, prosecuting, put it to witness Det Con Adam Brunton, 41, that Marilyn Manson "seemed to express a particular interest" in the murder.

The witness agreed.

Singer 'obsessed'

The court heard that Manson had previously stated he had been "obsessed" with the Black Dahlia murder since he was a youngster.

During cross-questioning, defence counsel Donald Findlay QC gave more details about Ms Short's murder.

He said: "The body was completely severed and she was found placed in a grotesque pose with her body in two parts, lying in some open ground."

Luke Mitchell denies murdering 14-year-old Jodi at a wooded area near Roan's Dyke on 30 June, 2003.

He says 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 continues.
Story from BBC NEWS:
Click to expand...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4151915.stm
 
LS: It can stay here for the time bieng (we can think where to put it later).

What I don't understand is the link. The reporting is a bit confusing (I'm a little under the weather so I may have missed something) but as far as I can tell the 2003 murder doesn't have any similarities with the Black Dahlia killings. The link seems to be:

--------
Marilyn Manson was obsessed wih the Black Dahlia murders

Adam Brunton liked Marilyn Manson's music

So it may have influenced him to kill his girlfriend.

-------
Or have I missed something vital?

Are they clutching at straws?
 
Emperor said:
--------
Marilyn Manson was obsessed wih the Black Dahlia murders

Adam Brunton liked Marilyn Manson's music

So it may have influenced him to kill his girlfriend.

-------
Or have I missed something vital?

Are they clutching at straws?
Click to expand...
(Luke Mitchell is the suspect BTW)

They have been trying to make out ever since the poor girl was murdered that its all some kind of rock n' roll black magic thing which the pair were into. Of course because she is dead she can't defend herself. She's been accused of all kinds of dreadful things like being obsessed with the colour black (oooOOOOooo) when she blatently preferred bright colours and had just dyed her hair green etc etc. She was only 14 FFS.
 
Yup, it's a bit odd, isn't it?
Considering other things I've read about the prosecution in this case so far, I don't think they've got a lot to work with. It smacks of desperation.
I bet Marilyn Manson would be appauled if he knew that yet again his name was being bandied about as a dreadful influence on the youth of today, a la Columbine. It's another attempt at pointing the finger of blame when the fault most probably lies elsewhere, closer to home.
 
Lady Stella said:
Yup, it's a bit odd, isn't it?
Considering other things I've read about the prosecution in this case so far, I don't think they've got a lot to work with. It smacks of desperation
Click to expand...
They don't have much to work on at all. It took nearly two years to charge Luke. You can't convict someone of murder just because they like Marylin Manson surely?
 
Its an old story blaming some sort of cultural device on being the influence for murder. The fact is, millions of people listen to Marylin Manson and only a tiny percentage go on to kill anyone. I bet that boy watched TV, played cowboys and indians in his youth, and played video games - much like we all did - and we're not homicidal maniacs.
 
"They don't have much to work on at all. It took nearly two years to charge Luke. You can't convict someone of murder just because they like Marylin Manson surely?"

Are you familiar with the West Memphis Three? You can charge, convict and sentence to death with that much evidence.

And a coerced confession, of course.

Robert
 
The straw grasping continues...
'No comparison' with Jodi case
The Jodi Jones court case has heard that there was little or no comparison between the death of the schoolgirl and a would-be Hollywood actress in 1947.

Defence lawyer Donald Findlay QC put it to pathologist Anthony Busuttil that there were differences between Jodi's death and that of Elizabeth Short.

But Prof Busuttil told the court there were "major similarities".

Luke Mitchell denies murdering Jodi on 30 June, 2003 at a wooded area near Roan's Dyke in Dalkeith.


The 16-year-old, who was Jodi's boyfriend, has lodged two special defences, one of alibi and one of incrimination.

Body severed

On Thursday, the High Court in Edinburgh was shown paintings by goth rocker Marilyn Manson based on the death of Ms Short.

The water-colours of what became known as the Black Dahlia murder showed the woman with massive injuries to her face, breast and torso.

The pictures were shown to the jury.

On Friday, Mr Findlay pointed out that one crucial difference between Jodi's death and the 1947 murder was that Ms Short's body had been severed completely in two.

He added there had been "no attempt made to dismember" Jodi's body, with which the witness agreed.


It also appeared that Ms Short had been sexually abused. Prof Busuttil agreed that there was "no evidence of sexual abuse".

Other injuries had been found on Ms Short's body which the pathologist accepted had not been on Jodi's body.

It has been alleged that Mr Mitchell applied a ligature around Jodi's arms and struck her repeatedly on the head, mouth and body with a knife.

He has also been charged with being in possession of a knife or knives in public places, including St David's High School, on various occasions between 1 January and 30 June, 2003.

He has further been accused of being concerned in the supply of cannabis resin to a number of others, including Jodi, at times between January 1, 2003 and 14 April, 2004.

Mr Mitchell denies all three charges.


Story from BBC NEWS:
Click to expand...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4155049.stm

Why does the pathologist say there are 'major similarities' and yet there actually doesn't seem to be many at all according to the defence and a witness?
This case get wierder by the day.
 
Lady Stella said:
Why does the pathologist say there are 'major similarities' and yet there actually doesn't seem to be many at all according to the defence and a witness?
Click to expand...
Because 'expert witnesses', on both sides, can demand a very high fee - especially if the case drags on and they can get their collegues in on the act.
 
Luke Mitchell has been found guilty after all and details surrounding the injuries on Jodi's body have been released. The attack was quite savage.

Teenager guilty of Jodi's murder

The former boyfriend of 14-year-old Jodi Jones has been found guilty of murdering her.
[...]

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/s ... 194463.stm
Click to expand...

Sorry about the length of the quote:

Profile - Luke Mitchell

Luke Mitchell was born in July 1988 and was living in Newbattle Road, Dalkeith, when he began going out with schoolgirl Jodi Jones.
Jodi, 14, from Easthouses, Dalkeith, was a pupil at St David's Roman Catholic High School along with Luke.

She had been taking a shortcut along a woodland path to Luke's house on 30 June, 2003 when she was brutally attacked and mutilated by the killer.

Mitchell and Jodi had begun going out in about March 2003.

They saw each other a couple of times a week at first, but before long they were spending time together most nights.

On the evening of 30 June, Jodi had left her family home at about 1700 BST but the alarm was raised later when she failed to get to Mitchell's house or return home.

Her body was found on the wooded path known as Roan's Dyke at about 2230 BST by Mitchell and members of Jodi's family.

The picture of Mitchell and Jodi which emerged at the trial was one of rebellious teenagers experimenting with drugs, sex and alternative music.

But Mitchell's fascination with the darker side of music and youth culture was also revealed.

The prosecution highlighted his knife-carrying and cannabis smoking, and claimed he had told another teenager that he knew the way "to slit someone's throat".

On the day of the memorial service for Jodi at Gorebridge Parish Church on 3 September, 2003, Mitchell told Sky News he had not killed his girlfriend.

He said: "In all the time we were going out, we never had one argument at all. Never fell out or anything."

Mitchell was arrested the following April and in November 2004 his trial began at the High Court in Edinburgh.

He was charged with repeatedly hitting Jodi, compressing her neck, tying her arms and repeatedly stabbing her before and after she died.

Parallels were drawn in court between Jodi's injuries and death and paintings by Goth rocker Marilyn Manson, one of Mitchell's favourite acts.

The water-colours are based on the death of would-be Hollywood actress Elizabeth Short in 1947.

The pictures of what became known as the Black Dahlia murder showed the woman with massive injuries to her face, breast and torso.

Mitchell's defence dismissed the connection between the two deaths but further evidence of his interest in Manson was brought before the trial.

The court heard how Mitchell liked horror films and occasionally read porn magazines and that he had bought the Marilyn Manson DVD The Golden Age of Grotesque two days after Jodi's death.

It included scenes showing two girls tied together near a track and struggling as hoods were placed over their heads.

His fascination with the darker areas of human behaviour was also reflected in his opinions on religion.

His school jotter was covered in Satanic slogans, with the numbers 666 and references to the Devil.

He also wrote an essay questioning God's existence and saying the world needed Satanic people - "People like you need Satanic people like me to keep the balance."

Just because I have chosen to follow the teachings of Satan doesn't mean I need psychiatric help
Luke Mitchell
Click to expand...

The word Satan was written across the back of a jotter with the phrase: "I have tasted the Devil's green blood."

In another essay, Mitchell wrote: "So what if I am a Goth in a Catholic school? So what if I dress in baggy clothes?

"Just because I am more violent than others and cut myself, does that justify some pompous git of a teacher to refer me to a psychiatrist?

"Just because I have chosen to follow the teachings of Satan doesn't mean I need psychiatric help."
He also admitted stubbing out cigarettes on his hand as a "party trick" and had scratched the numbers 666 on his upper-right forearm with a compass.

But much of what brought Mitchell and Jodi together was focused around their interest in music and their attraction.

He and Jodi spent a lot of time together and had sex on the Saturday night before she was killed.

Mitchell was accused of going out with another girl at the same time as he was seeing Jodi.

On the day she died, one witness said he saw Jodi and Mitchell smoking cannabis in a hide-away in a wood.

Later, in police investigations of the death scene, the initials LM and JJ were found carved into the bark of a tree and in a search of Mitchell's bedroom a leather knife pouch was discovered with the initials JJ and the dates 1989 to 2003.

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, or about 600 joints.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/s ... 187007.stm
Published: 2005/01/21 12:05:44 GMT

© BBC MMV
Click to expand...
 
for f*ck's sake!


He smoked canabis [reefer madness], 'the court heard how Mitchell liked horror films and occasionally read porn magazines [porn makes you a killer as do horror movies],' 'he had bought the Marilyn Manson DVD The Golden Age of Grotesque two days after Jodi's death.' [Here we go!] 'His school jotter was covered in Satanic slogans, with the numbers 666 and references to the Devil[ he's a high school kid! Quite alot of them posture with 'Satanic' imagry],' 'He also wrote an essay questioning God's existence [e'gods! An Athiest!] and saying the world needed Satanic people - "People like you need Satanic people like me to keep the balance." 'The word Satan was written across the back of a jotter.'

And so on...it's only later that the artical gets round to mensioning his history of self abuse but then it's always easier to paint a portraid of a madman than a person in need of help who went over the edge.
 
I should make it plain that I'm reacting against the atempt to patholigise behaviour that an awfull lot of young people engage in.

We never seek to understand out young, we just claim they're sick and need to be rescued by property ownership, a good job, a boyfriend/girlfriend...
 
The Virgin Queen said:
And so on...it's only later that the artical gets round to mensioning his history of self abuse but then it's always easier to paint a portraid of a madman than a person in need of help who went over the edge.
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree, I probably should have clarified why I posted the article but you sum it up anyway.

The slant of articles from the BBC and other sources too are based heavily upon the lifestyle choices of Luke Mitchell as being the cause of his behaviour rather than looking into other environmental factors. Which is reminsicent of so many other cases that have occurred recently where a young person has committed a crime, eg. the recent *Manhunt* video game and also of course the Columbine shootings with the Marilyn Manson link.
 
well it's easier to point to fingure of blame at a game or a singer than at a sociaty that let an obviously damaged young man stumble on without suport untill he killed.

Makes me sick :x
 
Some things reach a point for me, and to go past that point, in this case, is to go beyond the "oh, I'm so intensely intense" stage. I reckon that this baby-faced psychotic should be publically flogged, but only have to serve say, ten or twenty years.

You see, although the liberal mindset is to look at the excuse for a crime, and purport to have the key in rehabilitation, this can only work when a number of procedures and outlooks are prevalent in society for example, done the crime, done the time now forgive. Society doesn't work like that though. If you'd like to tell Jodi's parents why they should show such marked compassion to this boy, and why society should do the same, then send it to them in a pink fur lined envelope.

I remember nasty people when I was young. People who didn't have difficult upbringings and didn't spend time watching video nasties or listening to Slayer (that was me). Some people just need to be locked away! Or operated on.
 
A couple of reports:

Fri 21 Jan 2005

12:06pm (UK)

Luke Mitchell - No Ordinary Teenager

By Victoria Mitchell, Chief Reporter, Scottish Press Association

Sex, drugs, knives and Satan are not the usual interests of a 14-year-old boy.

But Luke Mitchell is no ordinary teenager. He is a cold, calculating killer who brutally murdered his girlfriend Jodi Jones then calmly helped her family search for her.

Mitchell came from a broken home – his parents Corinne and Philip are thought to have split up in 1999.

Like thousands of other troubled teenagers around the world, he was taken in by the dark, brooding Goth culture, and it is no surprise that he is a fan of US shock-rocker Marilyn Manson and tragic Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain.

Although Mitchell was still in contact with his father for weekend visits, he and Jodi may have seen themselves as kindred spirits as both were brought up by their mothers. Jodi’s father had committed suicide.

But by the time he turned 14, Mitchell had developed other more worrying interests. He had an alarming drug habit – claiming to smoke the equivalent of hundreds of cannabis joints every week.

He was having sex with different partners and appeared to have an unhealthy interest in the occult.

It may never be known if it was his obsession with Satanism which motivated him to murder Jodi, but her gruesome death bore the hallmarks of a ritual killing.

Mitchell’s jotters from Dalkeith’s St David’s High School were daubed with Satanic slogans and he wrote a school essay with worrying references to the devil.

His English book, shown to the court, had the numbers 666 and “Satan lives” on the cover.

“I have tasted the devil’s green blood” was also scrawled on the back.

Several other jotters were shown which contained slogans such as: “Evil is the way”, “Depression is only a stage in my life, so f*** off and stay out my mind” and “the finest day I ever had was when tomorrow never came” – a quotation from late Nirvana singer Cobain.

The handwritten essay, questioning the existence of God, had been submitted in January 2003 in place of a short story, which had been requested.

The essay contained passages such as: “If you ask me, god is just a futile excuse at most for a bunch of fools to go around annoying others who want nothing to do with him.

“Are these people insane?”

It also read “People like you need Satanic people like me to keep the balance” and “Once you shake hands with the devil you then have truly experienced life”.

It was also claimed he said he could imagine himself getting “stoned” and killing someone.

And the trial heard that Mitchell had been in possession of several knives, one of which he used for cutting up blocks of cannabis.

A knife pouch with the initials “JJ” – apparently a reference to Jodi Jones – and the numerals “666” written on it was found in his bedroom.

Just days after his girlfriend was brutally murdered, he bought a Marilyn Manson DVD about the murder of a Holywood actress.

Alan Turnbull QC asked the jury if they thought a “grieving young man who had accidentally stumbled on the mutilated and naked body of his girlfriend” would get any comfort from such a film.

Mitchell denied murdering Jodi from the outset but angered her family when he appeared on TV on the day of the teenager’s funeral to make a public denial.

He coolly told the Sky News interviewer when asked if he had murdered Jodi: “No. I never, I wouldn’t.”

He added: “In all the time we were going out, we never had one argument at all, never fell out or anything.”

Mitchell, who had been questioned by police twice by that stage, described the last two months as “his worst nightmare“.

He said: “All the police accusations I couldn’t care about. I just want to find out what happened and who did it.”

But mud sticks and after the murder Mitchell found he could not return to normal life.

He was banned from returning to school after the summer holidays and told he would have to be educated separately – away from his fellow pupils.

This led to a heated argument between Mitchell, his mother and the school’s headteacher, and threats of legal action.

Solicitor Nigel Beaumont said later that Mitchell’s life had been ruined by revelations in a report submitted by police to the procurator fiscal naming him as the sole suspect.

Last year he passed his school exams while in a secure unit awaiting trial – gaining five Standard Grade exams
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Source

I thought the start was interesting:

Sex, drugs, knives and Satan are not the usual interests of a 14-year-old boy.
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Dunno - I wouldn't say it was so unusual (it certainly describes a number of people I know when they were that age - although usually 3 out of the 4 perhaps bagging the whole set is the sign).

I saw a lengthy peice on Sky News about this and it was frightening - they kept saying that they had no evidence and nearly all thier evidence was insuation - at one point they showed a long sequence from a Marilyn Manson DVD the lad had bought and how it showed murder and suffocation but then after a minute or more of this they sneaked in at the end that he bought the DVD after the murder and the best justification they could even muster for showing it was that it was an odd thing to buy a couple of weeks after your girlfriend was killed. And it went on and on - they showed the 'links' to the Black Dahlia killings, they shattered his alibi because his brother was surfing for porn and wouln't have done that if he had known someone was in the house, etc., etc.

He seemed an unpleasant kid and I'd iamgine he probably did it but I am scared that someone could be convicted on such scanty evidence.
 
Emperor said:
Sex, drugs, knives and Satan are not the usual interests of a 14-year-old boy.
Click to expand...

Are they sure about that?

:?:

Last nighght on Radio 4 they had non stop 'he was a satanist' news reports on the hour.

no he was a teenage boy posturing with 'dangerious' ideas and images.

I'm thinking of making a complaint about it as Satanism is a religion after all - would they say the same thing if he was a catholic?
 
I'm sure if it looked like he thought he was being told to do it by God they wouldn't shut up about it either. (It's not something a deity would want to get involved with or even sugest i'm sure but this has not stopped criminals from claiming that either God/an angel/the devil/quetzoquatal/herne/billy the fish told them to kill someone over the ages)

It seems to me that he was a very 'disturbed' young man who unlike the vast majority of people who enjoy music of that kind, and realise that any claimes of the artist being the antichrist or the price of darkness are not real and just ploys to sell more records because they know it will anoy little tarquin or guinevere's parents thus satisfying tarquin and quiniveres nead to rebel against their parents, he belived that guff.

I would say, in this paticular case a likeing for manson's music, gore, cod 'buffy style' satenisam and plastering his note books with sigals he had seen in an episode of charmed was not the cause of him being a murdering nut bar but a symptom. He could just have easilly cultivated a murderus obsession with DIY makeover shows and listened to music involving hammers such as 'maxwell's silver hammer' or handy andy's version of 'If I 'ad an 'ammer', and the murder might have happened just the same. Perhaps this is not the person to hold up as a poster boy for how some people over react in trials whenever black metal is mentioned.
 
I think they're wheeling out all this Marilyn Manson crap because they can't find a motive. There is some strong evidence though. He discovered the body. He climbed over a wall and then claimed that he could see it 30 yards away, in a wooded area, at night. Sounds to me like he already knew it was there.

There was evidence that he used his mobile phone to try to put together an alibi. But his alibi - that he'd been at home cooking the supper - was scuppered by the fact that his brother was surfing porn websites and had made sure that he was alone in the house first. Luke's Mum tried to coroborrate the alibi but her credability was blown when it turned out that she'd recently lied about his age and produced fake ID so that he could get a tattoo.

All the satanic stuff just sounds to me like someone desperate for attention. So does continuing to go to school when his girlfriend had been horribly murdered. And giving an interview to Sky News when she was being burried. On the other hand it allso shows a stunning lack of feeling or empathy.

I don't know if he did it but I would be a lot happier if they could have come up with a bit more evidence that didn't feature Marilyn Manson.

Cujo
 
I'm posting this due to the sixth paragraph down with the quote about Luke Mitchell's interest in the gothic/rocker culture and then drawing links between satanism, nazism and *subversive* elements of the culture. I'm sure there will be even more to come along these lines.

Scotland on Sunday- opinion
Sun 23 Jan 2005

Warning signs that were not dealt with

THE verdict of the jury in the Jodi Jones murder trial has now resolved one issue: the identity of her killer. But in every other respect this case has raised many questions to which the public - and parents in particular - will be anxious to hear answers.

The picture that has emerged of Luke Mitchell, Scotland’s youngest murderer in recent history, is deeply disturbing and repellent. But it was hardly a secret life; on the contrary, the 14 years of Mitchell’s existence prior to the murder repeatedly signalled that here was a ticking time-bomb of psychopathic aggression that could only end in extreme violence. Why was nothing done to divert him from this obvious and remorseless course?

Parents will want to know why the school system failed to root out this bad apple. At primary school, aged 11, he was referred to a psychiatrist, after attacking another pupil. But no action was taken. At age 12, he threatened his then girlfriend with a knife because she refused to have sex with him. At St David’s High School, Dalkeith, after trying to throttle a fellow pupil, he was sent to a psychologist but refused his help. He was known to carry knives, with which he was obsessed, and he smoked cannabis on an industrial scale. He was a professed Satanist, engrossed in sadistic fantasies. It appears very little was done. Mitchell was only excluded from school after the murder of Jodi Jones.

Why did the authorities not take remedial action as early as his time in primary school? Why did a 12-year-old’s menacing use of a knife not provoke urgent action? Why was Mitchell allowed to reject the psychological help available to him after a further violent incident? What kind of regime was in place at St David’s High that permitted large-scale cannabis abuse, bullying and knife-carrying to prevail among pupils? Why - in a Catholic school, of all places - were repeated, lurid professions of Satanism treated with complacency?

An answer can be provided at least to one question - why Mitchell was not excluded from school. At the time when his conduct most merited expulsion from St David’s and isolation from his fellow pupils, the Scottish Executive had imposed targets on schools to reduce the number of exclusions, regardless of need. In that respect, Jodi Jones was a victim of the Executive’s culture of ‘inclusion’.

The other culture whose excesses were at the heart of this case was that of ‘rebellious youth’ and its associated cults, such as ‘goth’ rocker Marilyn Manson. The black clothes, tattoos, emblems and violent lyrics of this culture, besides an obviously Satanic connotation, bear a close resemblance to the mystical side of Nazism. Is it not time that parents and teachers wakened up to the challenge posed by this subversive counter-culture and made a serious effort to imbue young people with a more positive vision of life than this dark negation of hope? "It’s just a bit of fun", and "We were all young once", are alibis for an abdication of responsibility now discredited by Jodi Jones’s mutilated body.

Dalkeith is hardly Millionaires’ Row; but neither is it a deprived community. What happens in Dalkeith can occur anywhere in Scotland. That will be of concern to parents across the country, who must now wonder what potential catastrophes are smouldering within their own communities. The need now is for a strategy to ensure this tragedy is never repeated. That means parents and teachers must not be spectators, but motivators and facilitators of a constructive and purposeful adolescence for our children.

Mitchell’s pseudo-philosophising was accorded undeserved respect by impressionable contemporaries. It should have been listened to - in a different spirit - by his teachers. Even now the local authority, on whose watch this atrocity occurred, refuses to discuss the case. If it is accountable to its electorate for drains and dustbins, it is even more bound to give an account of how it discharged its responsibilities in a matter of life and death. Jodi Jones was let down by those in authority. The mourning process needs to be followed by a learning curve.
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Scotland on Sunday
 
The black clothes, tattoos, emblems and violent lyrics of this culture, besides an obviously Satanic connotation, bear a close resemblance to the mystical side of Nazism
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Though obviously not as much resemblance as Harry Hewitt's recent escapades bear to the sartorial side of Nazism.

The evidence against this kid was very slim indeed. If he had convictions for violence with knives they could not be revealed in court, and yet the prosecution is allowed to build a case on the basis that he seemed a bit "disturbed". The fact that the kid is the most likely person to have committed the crime is not enough to convict him under Scottish law. I think he probably did it, but the only positive evidence to that effect was the memory of Jodi Jones' granma. She remembered Luke leading the family through a gap in a wall, as if he knew Jodi would be found there.

The demolition of his aliby can't have helped but again, that only shows he could have commited the murder, not that he did.

There are similarities between this case that of Gill Dando's murderer. The evidence presented by the prosecution focused almost exclusively on the defendants perceived abnormality in both cases.
 
Jodi's murderer 'obsessed by occult'

Anyone else notice the sheer tosh in this article? Although it's probably not the journo's fault, rather the lawyers who know which angle to go for.

For example 600 joints a week? WTF? That's 85 a day - and is clearly impossible.

Then there's the whole Marilyn Manson thing, which is just daft. Liking crappy music does not turn you into a killer. Even if it is alternative music.

Edit: I'd not seen this thread, so started one of my own - I've deleted the BBC article that I'd quoted. But still - 85 joints a day? :roll:
 
Luke Mitchell has been sentenced. He will serve at least 20 years but he is apparently still protesting his innocence.

BBC

Luke Mitchell has been sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison for the murder of his girlfriend Jodi Jones.
Mitchell, 16, was convicted last month of killing 14-year-old Jodi in June 2003, in Dalkeith, Midlothian.

Trial judge Lord Nimmo Smith said Mitchell's cannabis smoking and his fascination with gothic rock artist Marilyn Manson's work were factors.

Defence QC Donald Findlay said the fight to clear Mitchell's name would continue.

Jodi was stripped, tied up and stabbed to death in woods near her home, the High Court in Edinburgh heard.

Lord Nimmo Smith told Mitchell, of Newbattle Abbey Crescent, Dalkeith, that he must serve 20 years before being considered for parole.

He described Jodi's killing as "one of the worst cases of murder of a single victim to have come before the court in many years".

The judge told Mitchell: "Jodi regarded you with affection and trust, she went out joyfully to meet you and she did you no harm.

"Yet you inflicted a horrible death on her and mutilated her body.

You found evil attractive and you thought that there might be a kind of perverted glamour in doing something wicked

"Looking back over the evidence I still cannot fathom what led you to do what you did.

"Perhaps you do not even know yourself."

He said he could not dismiss Mitchell's fascination with Satanism as "mere adolescent rebellion".

"I think that is a sign that you found evil attractive and that you thought that there might be a kind of perverted glamour in doing something wicked," he said.

Lord Nimmo Smith said he could not ignore the similarities between the injuries inflicted on Jodi and those in Marilyn Manson's paintings of Elizabeth Short.

The would-be Hollywood actress was killed in 1947 in what became known as the Black Dahlia murder.

"I think that you carried an image of the paintings in your memory when you killed Jodi," he told Mitchell.

Lord Nimmo-Smith said he believed there was a degree of premeditation behind the killing, which he thought the teenager had carried out as if he were "acting out a scene" in his mind.

His relationship with another girl, who bore a striking resemblance to Jodi, may also have been a factor

"I do not know how far in advance you decided to kill Jodi," said the judge.

"A trigger for deciding to do it then may have been her discovery that you were also carrying on a relationship with Kimberley Thomson and had planned to see her on holiday."

The judge said that nothing in the reports prepared on the teenager would have suggested that he was liable to commit such a serious crime.

With hindsight, he said, the teenager's upbringing may have contributed.

The trial heard evidence of Mitchell's cannabis use and the judge said he did not consider it a harmless recreational drug.

"I believe that in some instances at least it can seriously damage the mental processes of those who habitually consume drugs," he said.

"In your case I think that it may well have contributed to your being unable to make the distinction between fantasy and reality which is essential for normal moral judgments, and that this, along with other factors I have mentioned, may have meant that when you killed Jodi you were unable to recognise what a truly wicked deed this was."

Lord Nimmo Smith also spoke of the lack of emotion shown by Mitchell during the court proceedings.

"It may be that a lack of emotional response made you more readily able to inflict harm on others.

"Your lack of emotion may account for the callous charade in which you pretended to help search for Jodi and inflicted on members of her family the pain of the discovery of her body," he said.

Mitchell, who was wearing a blue shirt, stared straight ahead and showed no emotion as the judge announced the sentence.

His mother Corinne, 45, who had protested his innocence, also showed no sign of emotion.

Jodi's mother Judy was also in the court for the sentencing.

Mr Findlay 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."
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ummmmm blame Sex and Drugs and rock and roll, as to that 85 joint a day claim he either had serious tollerance for weed or he was smoking oregarno, lets just say that experiments conducted by me in Amsterdam say 3 or 4 good joints and you can't even stand up.
 
Rockandrollanarchysatanismnazis!

Spare us oh Lord from Scotland on sunday!

(BTW: it's a f*cking rag.)
 
At a time when they are reopening serious crime files from thirty years ago, I find it very strange that there was no forensic evidence on offer in this horrible case.

I would be very surprised if anyone else was responsible for the murder but if a taste for halfwit music and bad hair is evidence we could gaol half that generation on sight.

Hm . . . :?
 
James Whitehead said:
At a time when they are reopening serious crime files from thirty years ago, I find it very strange that there was no forensic evidence on offer in this horrible case.
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just what i was thinking: what proof is there that he did it? If thhey had proof would the need to bring in satanicpunkgothloudmusiccommiecomicbooks as a justification for the conviction?

Mmm...
 
Ok a cursery loook through the first few reports seem to show on defenate proof linking the acused to the murder. is this another embarasing miscarage of justice waiting to be uncoverd in a year or twos time? another life blighted by police who wanted a quick conviction?
 
rhedengren said:
"They don't have much to work on at all. It took nearly two years to charge Luke. You can't convict someone of murder just because they like Marylin Manson surely?"

Are you familiar with the West Memphis Three? You can charge, convict and sentence to death with that much evidence.

And a coerced confession, of course.
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I know Henry Rollins has been campiagning against this for a while but I didn't realise there were two documentaries out on them (I was entering a competition to win them):

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
www.imdb.com/title/tt0117293/

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations
www.imdb.com/title/tt0239894/

They have just been released here in the UK as a double set:
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0009 ... ntmagaz-21

produced by these people who have a good mini-site:
www.warpfilms.com/paradiselost/

Homepage:
www.wm3.org

Shortly after three eight-year-old boys were found mutilated and murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas, local newspapers stated the killers had been caught. The police assured the public that the three teenagers in custody were definitely responsible for these horrible crimes. Evidence?

The same police officers coerced an error-filled “confession” from Jessie Misskelley Jr., who is mentally handicapped. They subjected him to 12 hours of questioning without counsel or parental consent, audio-taping only two fragments totaling 46 minutes. Jessie recanted it that evening, but it was too late— Misskelley, Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols were all arrested on June 3, 1993, and convicted of murder in early 1994.

Although there was no physical evidence, murder weapon, motive, or connection to the victims, the prosecution pathetically resorted to presenting black hair and clothing, heavy metal t-shirts, and Stephen King novels as proof that the boys were sacrificed in a satanic cult ritual. Unfathomably, Echols was sentenced to death, Baldwin received life without parole, and Misskelley got life plus 40.

For over 11 years, The West Memphis Three have been imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit. Echols waits in solitary confinement for the lethal injection our tax dollars will pay for. They were all condemned by their poverty, incompetent defense, satanic panic and a rush to judgment.
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They even have a whole section on the satanic panic:
www.wm3.org/live/sp/
 
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