A car mechanic from Midlothian has claimed that he found a knife in a skip just 500 yards from where schoolgirl Jodi Jones was found murdered on June 30, 2003.
Tom Halliday, 63, told how he made the alarming discovery just days after the tragic 14-year-old was stabbed to death in 2003 before reporting the find to police.
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Tom’s motor repair site at Newbattle Home Farm, Midlothian, was around 500 yards from where her mutilated body was found 19 years ago.
The car mechanic is now speaking out now after recently finding out the blade was not even submitted as evidence during the trial of Luke Mitchell, who was convicted of killing his girlfriend. The weapon used in Jodi’s slaying has never been found.
Speaking, to the Scottish Sun Tom said: “We had a skip for our scrap metal at the top of the farm buildings.
“A few days after the murder, a worker asked me if I’d thrown a knife in the skip. I said no. I went round to the skip with him and saw the knife semi-buried.
“It had a broken tip, with probably about 5mm, missing. I called the police. Two officers arrived and I pointed out the knife.
“They asked if I knew who it belonged to. We confirmed we hadn’t touched it and it didn’t belong to either of us.”
Tom, who stays in nearby Mayfield, continued: “The next morning two vans and various cars were there when I came to open the garage.
“There were about ten officers, some in forensic suits, emptying the skip to try to find the broken tip.
“I read the brand name on the knife and checked online. I found an exact match, and it was very expensive.”
At the time, a field next to Tom’s garage was used by teenage mechanic apprentices for racing stock cars.
One of them, now a dad in his mid-30s, said: “We found a knife with blood on it in the skip. We were like, ‘What the f***.’ It was terrible.”
Tom, who now works as a bathroom designer and fitter, has no connection with Mitchell, 34, apart from repairing his family’s car.
But he doesn’t believe the caged murderer killed Jodi. He said: “Nobody placed any importance on that knife.
“When I learned it wasn’t documented, it raised my suspicions the police may have tried to conceal the discovery.”
After his conviction in 2005, Mitchell was ordered to serve at least 20 years behind bars.
Lawyer Scott Forbes, part of Mitchell’s legal team, said: “This is the real missing knife.
“Like so much of the evidence, it was either destroyed or went missing if it didn’t fit the police narrative.”
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