Discrepancies in 'A Long walk to justice'

 

The above statement was made Scott Forbes, author of the book 'A long walk to justice'. The book focuses on the murder of Jodi Jones and claimed wrongful conviction of Luke Mitchell. 

Campaign supporters were told by Dr Sandra Lean, who previously worked on the case with Forbes, that trial transcripts weren't available. This is incorrect, they are available - but interestingly, the discussion of the transcripts online has resulted in personal attacks by campaign leaders. 

Despite writing a book based on the case and regularly referring to what happened at the trial, Mr Forbes has stated that he hasn't read the transcripts:

 

 

This could explain the list of discrepancies below. These are just some. Surely books should be fact checked, and if the author is not willing to look at the available resources - where exactly are they getting the facts from?

A long walk to Justice (ALWTJ), by Scott Forbes page 919

"Records show the knife was handed in to Police by Luke's solicitor, Nigel Beaumont, who gave a statement confirming that". 

"The 'never been found knife' was shown to Luke Mitchell in Police photographs on August 14th 2004"

The knife wasn't handed in until the evening after the trial - which was 7 months after the knife pouch with the writing was found. It was found on April 14th 2004 - so could not have been the same knife shown to Luke in Police photographs in August 2003 - the photographs referred to in this book, of Luke's knife, were shown to him during the section 14 interview on 14th August 2003 - not 2004. 

ALWTJ page 2413

Alice Walker "just knew" to go to Roan's Dyke path that fateful night. When asked in court how she knew to go directly to Roan's Dyke, she stated: "I just did". 

What the transcripts say:

Cross examination by Donald Findlay begins on page 1132 of Alice Walker's transcripts from 13/12/2004. At no point does Findlay ask the question stated by Scott Forbes. At no point did Alice Walker respond "I just did" or "we just did". She didn't say that once, never-mind twice.

Through-out the transcripts, Alice Walker explains her reasoning behind going to the path that evening. She explains that she believed Jodi would meet Luke there - at no point does she answer "I just did", or "we just did".

ALWTJ page 2086

"Later, while in the hands of the Police, call logs were deleted"

What the transcripts say:

15/12/2004 - Evidence of DC Alan Towers 

Page 15 - A statement from Luke Mitchell is read out where he explains that he deleted the call log on his phone in case he "accidently made an outgoing call". 

ALWTJ page 870 "While Corrine Mitchell was on the stand the court was cleared for legal arguments and the charges of perverting the course of justice were dropped".

What the transcripts say:

Transcript page 2260 - Corinne's charges dropped and there is no mention of the Jury being removed or court being cleared, this is done in the middle of questioning and the questioning resumes - with the jury present.

ALWTJ page 554 

"Rosemary Walsh and Lorraine Fleming believe they saw someone very similar to Luke Mitchell at approximately 5:45pm"

What the transcripts say:

Transcript 01/12/04

When Lorraine Fleming is asked if she recognises the person she saw again, she responds: "Yes"

Where is he? D'you mean between the two gentleman in the white shirts? "Yeah"

Whether or not this sighting was accurate, ALWTJ does not mention that this witness DID believe she could identify Luke, not just that he looked very similar. 

ALWTJ page 572

"At approximately 5.55pm, Luke Mitchell was seen by people who knew him not far (300 meters) from where Ms Walsh and Ms Fleming had thought they had seen him on Newbattle road. According to these particular sightings, he was wearing a dark green bomber jacket with orange lining  and light coloured ski boots, all of which he was wearing later that night when he searched for Jodi.

What the transcripts say:

02/12/04 transcript 

AH, one of the three boys who saw Luke at around 6pm at the entrance to Newbattle Abbey crescent on Monday June 30th 2003, describes the clothing he believes Luke was wearing:

In his first statement to Police he described:

"Dark blue baggy jeans and a dark green shirt...it was definitely a shirt, not a jacket. I think it was buttoned-up and I couldn't see anything underneath it. It was down to the waist of his jeans, and baggy."

Transcript page 590 - The witness is read back a statement which is believed to be his very first statement from 9th July 2003:

"Luke was wearing dark blue baggy jeans and a dark green shirt". 

"It was definitely, definitely a shirt, not a jacket". 

These are some discrepancies from the book - however, there have been other claims made by Mr Forbes, which although not related to transcripts, have been proven to be untrue: 

https://lmtranscriptdiscussion.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-knife-in-skip-at-home-farm-was.html