Luke Mitchell's appeal against his conviction for murdering Jodi Jones hinged on six major grounds, which his lawyers argued meant he did not get a fair trial. Yesterday, in a detailed ruling, judges rejected them one by one: The identification Andrina Bryson thought little of it when she noticed a boy and a girl at Roan's Dyke Path in Dalkeith one summer's afternoon in 2003.

But a few months later she saw a photograph of Luke Mitchell in a newspaper article about the murder of Jodi Jones and realised that he looked just like the youth she had seen in the woodlands, on the same day the schoolgirl was murdered.

The sighting became a key part of the prosecution case against Mitchell as it placed him at the scene at around 5pm, destroying his alibi in which he had claimed that he was at home at the time.

Yesterday, it was also cited by judges as a significant reason for rejecting Mitchell's appeal against his conviction on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence in the wholly circumstantial case against him.

Summing up their decision to refuse the appeal on that particular challenge, Lord Justice General Lord Hamilton said the court was satisfied there was sufficient evidence in law for a guilty verdict.

He said: "An important element in the Crown case was the evidence of Mrs Andrina Bryson ... Two other female witnesses identified the appellant as the young man they had seen at the Newbattle end of the path about 50 minutes later. Taken at its highest, Mrs Bryson's evidence amounted to an identification of the appellant as that male and of Jodi Jones as possibly that female.

"Taken along with other evidence it would have been open to the jury to conclude that it was indeed her. If that evidence was accepted, it not only destroyed the appellant's alibi but also put him in the company of Jodi Jones at a point of time which on other evidence may well have been shortly before she met her death."

The absence of any signs of struggle on the path side of the wall near a gap close to where the schoolgirl met her death also suggested that she went through the break with someone she knew, such as Mitchell whom she had gone to meet that evening.

Mitchell's behaviour As the murder investigation got under way, Mitchell's bizarre behaviour became a key focus of the inquiry.

Another ground of appeal challenged the submission of evidence about Mitchell keeping bottles of his own urine in his bedroom.

This, too, was rejected by appeal judges who, noting that the trial judge had told the jury not to judge Mitchell on his lifestyle, concluded that there was no merit to the challenge.

The police liaison officer The next ground for appeal centred on the trial judge's decision to allow evidence from a family liaison officer who was appointed to Mitchell's family.

Just days after Jodi's murder, on July 2, 2003, DC Michelle Lindsay had a conversation with Mitchell at his home during which he drew a sketch plan relating to the murder.

The defence suggested that the term family liaison officer' had been misleading. But judges ruled that there was no evidence that Mitchell had been confused about the purpose of the officer's questions. The information was also not deemed to be particularly significant by itself.

The questioning By August 14, 2003, Mitchell was seized from his Dalkeith home and brought in for questioning under caution. During the police interview the trial heard there was an "extraordinary" attempt to bully Mitchell into making a confession.

Detectives suggested to the 15-year-old schoolboy that he had got a sexual thrill out of murdering his girlfriend.

During the appeal defence QC Donald Findlay said the interview and subsequent submission of evidence at the trial was "one of the most significant elements in my presentation to this court that Luke Mitchell did not receive a fair trial and a miscarriage of justice resulted".

But yesterday judges decided that while the conduct of officers had been deplorable, the specific questions and answers from the interview which the prosecution sought to use as evidence were not obtained in circumstances that would have rendered them inadmissible.

The judges also said that much of the contended information from the interview related to matters already "properly in evidence".

The mother The next twist centred on the events of October 7, 2003 when Mitchell's mother Corrine took her under-age son to get a tattoo using false ID.

The prosecution was said to have failed to inform the defence team of details of the visit as early as it should have done, prompting defence counsel to lodge a further appeal about the delay and the attempt to smear Mrs Mitchell's character.

Judges yesterday conceded it was in the crown's interests to discredit Mrs Mitchell, by alluding to wrongdoing, when she was known to be likely to give evidence supporting her son's alibi, which she later did.

Although the appeal judges disagreed with the trial judge that the evidence could not possibly infer "bad character", they nonetheless concluded again that there was no miscarriage of justice.

The publicity As one of the most gruesome murders in Scottish history, the case attracted countless media reports.

That, along with the proximity of Edinburgh to the murder scene, led the defence to request that the trial be heard outwith the Edinburgh area.

The trial judge refused the request, leading to another ground for appeal on the same basis alleging that Mitchell did not receive a fair trial.

The appeal judges however noted that the trial judge had taken steps to ensure that the jury would not be prejudiced against Mitchell as a result of media reports.

On the final grounds that taken together all the objections gave rise to "a sense of unease" about the safety of the conviction, they gave their final rejection, citing all the reasons they had already outlined. They ruled that no miscarriage of justice had taken place.

Luke Mitchell's appeal verdict - including video from inside the court