POLICE Scotland say they are "satisfied" they caught the right man in connection with the 2003 muder of Jodi Jones.
The force’s defence comes ahead of a new documentary on the killing of the Dalkeith teen, which suggests Luke Mitchell might be the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
He’s protested his innocence ever since his arrest as a 14 year old.
Two former police detectives hired by a new Channel 5 documentary, Murder in a small town, say they believe the now 32-year old man is innocent.
Jodi, 14, vanished in June 2003. It Mitchell - who was her boyfriend, who found her body near the Roan's Dyke path that ran between their homes in Dalkeith.
She had been punched, throttled and stabbed in a frenzied knife attack.
The murder shocked Scotland. During the 42 day trial, police said they believed Mitchell was obsessed with goth culture, Marilyn Manson and the notorious 1940s “Black Dahlia” murder in Hollywood.
They also suggested the murder could have followed a row after Jodi discovered Mitchell was cheating.
Sentencing the teen to a minimum of 20 years, Lord Nimmo Smith, said: "It lies beyond any skill of mine to look into the black depths of your mind. I can only look at what you have done.
"I have no idea what led you to do what you did. Maybe it was a desire for notoriety, to achieve something grotesque.I leave it to others to fathom."
He lost appeals in 2008 and 2011. Two further appeal bids were rejected in 2014 and 2018.
In phone calls from jail to be broadcast next week, Mitchell claims he was framed by police: “I was the local weirdo. It was easy to put on me.”
He said two cops tried to bully him into admitting he slaughtered his girlfriend Jodi by screaming: “Confess you little b*****d”.
He added: “I’ve not spoken out in all this time because every time I’ve tried to I’ve been shouted down and called evil, manipulative and twisted.
“I can’t be more clear. I absolutely did not kill Jodi and I’ve been locked up for a crime I didn’t commit. I will not admit to something I’ve not done. I want to clear my name.”
He told the show it was “obvious from the police treatment” that he was “a suspect from day one.”
“I was told to sit separately from the rest of the members of the search party,” Mitchell said.
“One of tem had tried to hand me a cigarette when we were sitting waiting.
“They were told that they shouldn’t be having any interaction with me yet the other three sat together all talking together and I was kept separate.
“Genuinely from the very first moment that police arrived, I was being treated separately. They were becoming increasingly aggressive in an attempt to physically intimidate me.
“I requested to go to the toilet. I was taken there and was standing at the urinal with two very large adult males shouting at me that I was to ‘confess you little b*****d, just tell us what you did and we’ll make it OK’.
“I don’t know why they went after me like this. It’s not like I had any criminal involvement with police beforehand.
“I was the local weirdo. It was easy to put it on me. It was easy to make people believe these nasty and evil things about me.”
The two-part documentary, which airs next week, follows ex-Police Scotland detectives John Sallens and Michael Neill as they re-examine the case.
The pair, who run Glasgow based detective agency, Integritas Investigative Solutions, say there was only circumstantial evidence to connect Mitchell to the murder.
They also claim there's evidence pointing to around five other suspects, including one who can’t be named for legal reasons.
Neill said: “I do believe Luke Mitchell suffered a serious miscarriage of justice and was let down by the legal system. I can’t understand how a jury could find him guilty beyond all reasonable doubt.”
However, Detective Chief Superintendent Laura Thomson from Police Scotland said the conviction was safe.
She said: “Following the discovery of Jodi Jones’ body, a thorough investigation was conducted by Lothian and Borders Police. Extensive forensic analysis was carried out along with door-to-door inquiries and other investigative techniques.
“As a result, Luke Mitchell, was charged with Jodi’s murder, before being convicted in 2005.
“We are satisfied we do not need to trace any other individuals in connection with this investigation.”
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