Convicted murderer Luke Mitchell has won the right to legally challenge the decision not to release him from prison.
Mitchell, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of his 14-year-old girlfriend Jodi Jones, was denied his freedom at a parole hearing last year.
He was 14 when he stabbed Jodi to death in woodland near her home in Dalkeith, Midlothian, in 2003 and was later sentenced to a minimum term of 20 years before being eligible for parole.
The now 36-year-old, who maintains his innocence, instructed lawyers to petition for judicial review of the Parole Board for Scotland's decision not to release him on licence.
The Court of Session in Edinburgh has ruled that the review can go ahead and a one-day hearing has been scheduled for February 6.
Mitchell was denied parole last April after a psychiatric report labeled him a “sexual risk” to women.
He had been in a relationship with Jodi for four months when he murdered her in what judge Lord Nimmo Smith later described as 'a truly vicious murder'.
The schoolgirl had not returned home on the evening of June 30 and Mitchell claimed to have been alerted to her body by his dog as he searched for her.
She was discovered with her hands tied behind her back, her throat slit and her body slashed repeatedly.
Convicted murderer Luke Mitchell (pictured in 2008) has won the right to legally challenge a decision not to release him from prison
Mitchell, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of his 14-year-old girlfriend Jodi Jones (pictured), was denied his freedom at a parole hearing last year
After a 10-month police investigation, Mitchell was charged with her murder and was 16 when convicted at the High Court in Edinburgh in 2005.
He has lost four appeals but has attracted a significant following of online supporters convinced of his innocence since the broadcast of a TV documentary in 2021.
After Mitchell's parole was denied, a relative of his victim said, “If this man were released, I would fear for women.”
“He is a dangerous killer and should stay inside for a long time.”
Mitchell was jailed in February 2005 but became eligible for parole in April last year as time spent in custody ahead of his trial is taken into account.
His lawyers declined to comment on the case.
A spokesperson for the Parole Board for Scotland said: 'The Parole Board for Scotland does not comment on individual cases.
'More generally, there is no appeal against the Council's decision. However, if the prisoner feels that his case has not been handled appropriately, he can apply for a judicial review of his case.”
