The National Youth Agency: Comment - Marilyn Manson is innocent

The teenager, from Dalkeith in Midlothian, was stabbed to death by her boyfriend Luke Mitchell, now 16. The supposed link with the American rock star is that Manson apparently once did a painting depicting a famous murder. Or something. It's really because Manson looks a bit scary, and we know for a fact that Mitchell bought one of his albums only two days after murdering Jodi. Conclusive proof, then, that the singer is to blame.

At Mitchell's trial in February 2005, Judge Lord Nimmo Smith had the audacity to cite the young man's "fascination" with Manson as a factor in Jodi's death. This is an insult not only to the artist but more pertinently to Jodi's family, who are expected to swallow this hogwash in place of any real explanation as to why Jodi was killed. It's just possible that Mitchell was a seriously disturbed young man, perhaps excluded from his peer group, perhaps with mental health difficulties and perhaps with problems at school or at home. An experienced youth worker would have picked up on these things very quickly, and maybe, had someone cared, Mitchell could have been helped.