A witness at the Jodi Jones murder trial said yesterday that he became ''alarmed'' when he heard a ''strangling'' sound coming from behind a wall on the day the schoolgirl died.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard that cyclist Leonard Kelly, 30, was worried that he had not stopped when he heard the noise as he made his way home from a bike run.
Earlier, another witness told the court that a newspaper photograph of Luke Mitchell, 16, who is on trial accused of Jodi's murder, looked like someone she had seen on a path on the day that Jodi died.
Mr Mitchell, Jodi's boyfriend, denies murdering the 14-year-old on June 30 last year at a wooded area near Roan's Dyke path, between the Newbattle and Easthouses areas of Dalkeith, Midlothian.
In court yesterday, Mr Kelly, from Easthouses, confirmed he had been for a ride on his mountain bike after work on Monday June 30, and said that as he made his way up the Roan's Dyke path he heard a noise which gave him a start.
''I thought somebody had somebody in a headlock. It was a strangling sort of sound - a human,'' he told the court, adding that the noise seemed to be coming from the other side of a wall bordering the path.
The witness said he was just over five minutes away from his house at that point and estimated that he would have returned home ''about 10 past to quarter past five,'' that day.
Under cross-questioning by defence counsel Donald Findlay QC, the witness said: ''I was alarmed. The sound sort of gave me a fright.''
The judge, Lord Nimmo Smith, asked Mr Kelly later whether he had been worried about the fact that he had not stopped.
The witness replied: ''(Of) course I was.''
Earlier, witness Andrina Bryson, 26, said she was ''taken aback'' when she saw a photograph of Luke Mitchell in a tabloid newspaper last August.
In her evidence, she told the court she saw a male person at the entrance to the Roan's Dyke path on the day Jodi died at around 4.50pm or 4.55pm.
The male was looking towards a girl and he had his arms by his side, with his palms facing out in front of him, the court had been told.
The witness was asked about a photograph she had seen in the press.
''I saw a photograph of Luke Mitchell in the paper,'' she told the court, adding: ''It looked like the same person I had seen.''
In a statement given to police, which was read out in court, the witness said: ''The person in this picture I am sure was the same person as I saw at the top of the path.''
But, asked by Mr Turnbull whether she recognised the person in court, the witness replied: ''I don't know.''
Mr Mitchell denies murdering the schoolgirl.
He also denies the unlawful possession of a knife or knives in public places, and of being concerned in the supply of cannabis resin to a number of people.
Mr Mitchell has lodged special defences of alibi and incrimination.
The trial continues.
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