The over zealous police questioning left him unsure about everything. Memory's such a complicated thing and, for me, none of Shane's evidence seems solid enough to build an opinion on, guilty or innocent.
THE brother of the teenager accused of killing Jodi Jones thought he was alone in his house on the afternoon of her death, a court heard yesterday.
Shane Mitchell, 23, told the High Court he arrived at the family home just before 5pm, about 50 minutes after his brother, Luke, answered a call from his mobile phone to the house landline. Mr Mitchell said he then watched internet pornography in his bedroom and masturbated.
Luke Mitchell's alibi claims he was at home between 5pm and 5.45pm that day.
His brother, a mechanic, told the court he did not remember seeing or hearing anyone until his mother arrived home from work a short time after 5.16pm.
Alan Turnbull, QC, advocate depute, asked Shane Mitchell what he was doing during the internet session. He said he could not remember.
The lawyer then confronted him with photographs of Jodi's mutilated body. Shane Mitchell was visibly shocked and asked for a break. He sat down and drank from a glass of water.
"You look a bit horrified, " said Mr Turnbull. "They are not pleasant, I know, but the reason I have asked you to look at these is so you can appreciate what you are dealing with.
"I can't let embarrassment stand in the way of getting to the bottom of this."
Mr Mitchell, referring to the internet pictures, agreed that he would not normally look at such graphic images, had anyone else been home. He added that he thought he masturbated at the time.
Mr Turnbull said: "Would you have been content to have watched this sort of pornography in that room without a lock on the door, and to have masturbated if someone else was in the house?"
"No, " he said.
"Accordingly, who did you think was in the house?"
Mr Mitchell replied: "No one at that time." He added that he did not hear music being played in Luke's bedroom or the dining room.
"If you had done, you would have recalled you weren't alone, " said Mr Turnbull.
"We come then to where we were a wee while ago, which is this: When you went on the computer to access pornography sites, you thought that the house was empty?"
"Yes, " came the answer.
Mr Turnbull asked: "I want you to reflect on the question whether Luke was there when you went downstairs. Do you think he was there?"
"I don't know, " he said.
The court heard that Luke Mitchell gave a statement to police on July 4, 2003, claiming he had had dinner with his mother, but not his brother, before leaving to meet Jodi that evening. He has previously told police he was at home until 5.30pm or 5.40pm.
Luke Mitchell, 16, denies murdering Jodi with a knife or similar instrument on June 30, 2003, and has lodged two special defences of alibi and incrimination. He claims that at the time he was in or around his house at Newbattle Abbey Crescent, Dalkeith, and Jodi was murdered by person or persons unknown.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12408308.Jodi_trial___brother__apos_alone_in_house_apos__Court_hears_porn_admission/
