Overturn my conviction says killer after landmark ruling

The 22-year-old argues that his trial was “unfair” because evidence gleaned from his police interview – when he says he did not have access to a lawyer – was “crucial” to the Crown case.

Mitchell, who was locked up for life in 2005 and ordered to serve at least 20 years for the murder of his 14-year-old girlfriend Jodi Jones, now wants the argument to be heard in full by senior judges.

He went to the Appeal Court in Edinburgh yesterday asking for permission to have the claims, contained in a single ground of appeal, heard by the court.

Judges will rule at a later date on whether they will allow the new legal challenge to go ahead.

In October last year, the highest court in the UK issued a decision which has become known as the Cadder ruling.

The Supreme Court ruled that the Scottish system which allowed suspects to be held and questioned for six hours without access to a lawyer breached the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

MSPs were forced to rush through emergency legislation giving criminal suspects immediate access to a lawyer.

Earlier this month, it emerged that more than 800 prosecutions had to be dropped or put on hold in the three months following the ruling.

In paperwork lodged with the court, lawyers for Mitchell state: “The decision in Cadder clearly applies to this case.”

They note that his initial appeal against conviction, which was thrown out in 2008, pre-dates the Supreme Court decision.

The ground of appeal which Mitchell wants to be heard in full centres on the use at his trial of his police interview when he was a suspect.

At the time of the interview, he was 14 and did not have access to legal representation before or during the interview, it is claimed.

Mitchell’s lawyers state in the official paperwork: “The evidence of the appellant’s interview was relied upon by the Crown as crucial to the corroboration of the circumstantial Crown case.

“The use of this evidence rendered the appellant’s trial unfair in the circumstances of this case.”

Mitchell’s legal team also note that Appeal Court judges have previously criticised as “outrageous” the way police interviewed him.

At an Appeal Court hearing yesterday, Maggie Scott QC argued the new ground of appeal should be heard by the court, while the Crown opposed the move, saying it had come too late.

Jodi was just 14 when she vanished in Dalkeith, Midlothian, in June 2003.

She was stripped, tied up and stabbed to death, before her mutilated body was left in woodland near her home.