Manson: 'Don't blame me for Jodi'
A DVD by Manson was shown during the Jodi Jones trial
Goth rock star Marilyn Manson has dismissed a judge's suggestion that
his work influenced the killer of 14-year-old schoolgirl Jodi Jones.
Luke Mitchell was sentenced on Friday to a minimum of 20 years in
prison for the murder of his girlfriend Jodi in June 2003 at Dalkeith,
Midlothian.
Judge Lord Nimmo Smith said Mitchell's Manson fascination could be a
factor.
The singer told the Sunday Mail it was "all about" Mitchell's
upbringing and not "putting blame elsewhere".
'Similar injuries'
Jodi was stripped, tied up and stabbed to death in woods near her
home, the High Court in Edinburgh heard.
What I do know is that it is all about the education that
parents give their children and the influences they receive, not putting the
blame elsewhere
Marilyn Manson
Lord Nimmo Smith said he could not ignore the similarities between the
injuries inflicted on Jodi and those in Manson's paintings of Elizabeth
Short.
The would-be Hollywood actress was killed in 1947 in what became known
as the Black Dahlia murder.
"I think that you carried an image of the paintings in your memory
when you killed Jodi," he told Mitchell.
Manson told the Sunday Mail newspaper he had heard of the Jodi case
but did not want to "give it too much publicity".
"What I do know is that it is all about the education that parents
give their children and the influences they receive, not putting the blame
elsewhere," he said.
'Mental damage'
The trial heard evidence of Mitchell's cannabis use and the judge said
he did not consider it a harmless recreational drug.
"I believe that in some instances at least it can seriously damage the
mental processes of those who habitually consume drugs," he said.
"In your case I think that it may well have contributed to your being
unable to make the distinction between fantasy and reality which is
essential for normal moral judgments."
He also said he could not dismiss Mitchell's fascination with Satanism
as "mere adolescent rebellion".
"I think that is a sign that you found evil attractive and that you
thought that there might be a kind of perverted glamour in doing something
wicked," he said.
Defence QC Donald Findlay said the fight to clear Mitchell's name
would continue.
He told the court: "So long as that young man maintains to me he did
not kill Jodi the fight to clear his name will go on."
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