Why did Luke turn left when he climbed over the wall?

 

One of the prosecution's main points when it came to the case against Luke Mitchell VS HMA for the murder of 14 year old Jodi Jones (2004/5), was that he had known the exact location of her mutilated body which lay behind a wall, out of sight from the main path - and that he could only have known this if he had killed her.

Luke's defence was that his trained tracker dog, Mia, had alerted him to the position of the body.

But Jodi's body lay over 17 yards to the west/left of where Luke had climbed over the wall. After climbing over, he turned in this direction and was able to see her body in the dark in seemingly a matter of seconds.

In his own words, he climbed over and turned "immediately" left. He explained that he did this because as he and Jodi's gran (Alice Walker), sister (Janine) and her then partner Steven Kelly, were walking down the path looking for Jodi, he and his dog had walked slightly ahead, and at around 20 yards past the break in the wall, the dog alerted as if she had smelled something. This prompted him to turn back and climb over to investigate. The trouble is, none of the other members of the search party agreed with his version events.

Luke's statements

First account (1st July): "We walked past a V-shaped break in the wall and a few yards, not even 20 yards past that, Mia stopped and put her nose in the air and put her paws up on the wall as if trying to sniff over it. I went 'stop'. Jodi's gran and the others watched the dog. I said 'I think she's smelt something'. I handed the lead to Jodi's gran and asked her to hold on to the dog...

further on..

At the other side of the wall, there are woods. I turned immediately left and followed a dirt path next to the wall for about six feet. There were no branches in my way, just a tree. As soon as a I walked along the path, I saw this white thing that stuck out on the right. I could see it was legs, like a tailor's dummy. It was just a few feet past a big oak tree and some undergrowth and greenery. After I saw these legs I just took another step to register it was a body lying there."

At the trial, Steven Kelly was asked how long had passed between Luke going to the V break and then shouting that he had found something. He is asked whether it would have been minutes or seconds.

Kelly replies "seconds". (page 953 of his transcript).

Steven and Janine had taken over/passed Luke on the path after Luke climbed over the V, but none of the statements point to them having walked much further past before Luke shouted. All statements confirm that Alice stayed at the V break with the dog once Luke had handed her the lead.

Further statements from Luke:

Second account (date unclear): "She suddenly stopped, sniffed the air, put her head right up and was sniffing the air, when she turned to the right and faced the wall and started darting over to the wall and like sort of trying to jump up against the wall and sniffing over it."

Third account (14th August 2003): "When Mia stopped and air scented at the wall, then she started clawing up at the wall, we got to here, she sort of suddenly stopped, sniffed around, put her nose to the air, turned and went directly to the wall".

Changed stories?

The author of Innocents Betrayed, Sandra Lean, claims that there is evidence that Janine and Steven changed their version of events after telling 'exactly the same story' as Luke about the dog reacting PAST the V break in the wall:

Page 63: Statements from Janine and Steven about the dog jumping about and pulling over to the wall, including a particularly detailed one from Steven who said, “It was an Alsatian – it’s a big dog – when it was standing on its hind legs at the wall, its head was level with the V,” had disappeared from the witnesses’ memories by trial. The dog, according to their evidence in court, did nothing at all – Luke simply went to the V break and climbed through. For fully a month after the murder, Janine and Steven were telling exactly the same story as Luke – that the dog alerted a little way past the V break (Alice was behind them and could not say what the dog did or did not do.) After the stories began to change, Alice gave a statement in August that, in her opinion, Luke was “guiding” the dog towards the wall. All of her previous statements stated that she did not see what the dog did until the point where Luke handed her the lead.

The claim is made here that Steven said the dog's head was 'level with the V' and this seems to be used as an example of the dog reacting 'a little way past the V'. These are not the same thing at all.

Both Steven and Janine were questioned about these statements at the trial:

Janine's statement (transcript page 879 day 1):

"Luke's dog was on a lead at all times but started jumping about at the wall. Luke then climbed over the wall and started searching about".

The witness goes on to say she couldn't remember that happening but if it was in her statement, it must be correct. The important point here though, is that there is no mention of this occurring AFTER the V break.

She is asked by AT QC whether she had ever said Luke had walked past the V break (page 926, day two)

AT: Have you ever said to the Police at any time at all that Luke walked past the break and came back again?

Janine replies "No"

Steven Kelly's statements are read out during his testimony:

Kelly said in his first statement on July 1st: "At one point, Luke's dog went to a wall that had the top bricks missing, it was sniffing and jumping up. Luke Mitchell jumped over and said he could...something" (it is established a word is missing).

Further on, still July 1st:

"As we approached the V in the wall, Luke's dog started pulling in to the side of the wall as it had been doing. Because of this, Janine and I had walked a few footsteps in front continuing to look. Luke had went to the wall with the dog pulling. I then heard Luke shouting something like "I think there is something here".

12th July statement: The dog was sniffing about and then pulling him mainly towards the right in to the undergrowth at the wall....(continued)...I seem to remember Luke's dog pulling us over to the wall prior to us reaching the broken part of the wall where we went over.

Continued: "I stopped to check some (incomprehensible) in the undergrowth, but Alice carried on a couple of steps. I was aware of the dog pulling Luke over to the wall and standing on it's hind legs with it's front paws on the wall."

"I was aware of the dog pulling Luke over to the wall and saw it standing on it's hind legs with it's front paws on the wall. The dog is an Alsatian and it's quite big, When it stood up, it's head was level with the bottom of the V in the wall."

Sandra Lean used this statement in the same paragraph as claiming that Steven and Janine had said the dog reacted a little way past the V break. First of all, how much is a 'little way'? Because Luke claimed he knew where the body was due to Mia alerting 20 yards past the V break, parallel to where her body lay. Second, Sandra misses out part of the statement in her book - "the bottom of the V in the wall". Without this, it could be open to the reader to assume that 'level' may mean a few yards a long, or perhaps, 20 yards further along. Clearly, Mr Kelly was referring to the dog being right in front of the V break. He never said at any point, that the dog reacted AFTER the hole in the wall.

Kelly is later asked to watch a demonstration by AT QC of himself walking past the V and then back again (page 978) and asked "did anything like that happen that night Mr Kelly?". He replies: "No, he never done that."

Alice Walker's statement from 5th July, 5 days after the murder 2003 (Page 1152 of her transcript):

"When Luke didn't see anything, we all kept walking. Just a bit further down, the wall had a hole in it, as if it had been knocked down at that particular spot. This is the part where Luke actually climbed over. I don't know what drew us to that part but I'm certain it was Luke's idea. The dog didn't seem to be bothered but I couldn't say whether it jumped at the wall or not. Luke handed me the dog's lead so as I could hold on to it as he had decided to climb over the wall. I remained at the hole in the wall whilst Luke was over the other side and Janine and Steven kept walking a few steps in front."

This early statement from Alice Walker describes Luke handing her the dog lead at the V break while she waited/remained at that area. At no point does she describe him doubling back having walked past the V break.

If defence QC Donald Findlay had access to any statements which confirmed or even strongly suggested at any point, that any of the others had saw Luke walk past the V break, he surely would have used them. These accounts contain early statements - there is no evidence whatsoever of anything being changed after the first month and Sandra Lean did not provide any such evidence in her book.

On August 14th 2003, Luke told Police about the hole in the wall. He said:

"I noticed it when I was down, when we were walking down, because we were going slower and had managed Mia calm in to tracking mode and I'd noticed it with the torch, but I hadn't taken it you know, know anything about it."

Luke says that he noticed the hole in the wall for the first time while walking past it on the way back down with the others and before Mia alerted, prompting him to turn back and investigate. But if he never walked past the V break, this can't be the case.

The question is, if Jodi's family members are correct (they all consistently agreed) and there is no evidence that Luke's dog reacted parallel to where Jodi's mutilated body lay - bearing in mind that this is the only reason he gave for finding her body so easily and quickly - how did he know to turn left immediately?

Trial transcripts link: https://lukemitchelltrialtranscripts.blogspot.com/