‘Devious’ killer who decapitated buddy should serve 34 years

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Met Police

A woman who murdered and decapitated her friend before putting her in a suitcase and dumping the body has been sentenced to life in jail.

Jemma Mitchell will serve at least 34 years for killing 67-year-old Mee Kuen Chong at her London home in June 2021.

Aggravating factors included that the killing was carried out for gain, and the manner in which she treated Ms Chong's body, the judge said.

"I am driven to the conclusion that you are extremely devious," he added.

On Friday, Judge Richard Marks KC was broadcast handing down his sentence to the 38-year-old at the Old Bailey.

Mitchell became the first murderer and the first woman to be sentenced on television in England and Wales, after rules were changed to allow cameras into courtrooms.

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"There is the chilling aspect of what you did to and with her body after you killed her," the judge said.

"You have shown absolutely no remorse and it appears you are in complete denial as to what you did, notwithstanding what in my judgment amounted to overwhelming evidence against you."

Ms Chong's body had been found in woodland in Salcombe by a holidaymaker, and her head was discovered nearby a few days later.

The pathologist who carried out a post-mortem examination on Ms Chong was unable to ascertain the cause of death because of the level of decomposition, but could determine a fracture to her skull.

The injury was likely to have been caused by being hit with a weapon and Ms Chong's ribs probably broke when Mitchell put her into a suitcase, the court previously heard.

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The prosecution claimed Mitchell hatched a plan to murder the vulnerable widow after befriending her through a church group.

When Ms Chong backed out of giving her £200,000 to pay for repairs to her rundown £4 million home, Mitchell killed her and forged a will to inherit the bulk of her estate – worth more than £700,000.

She also forged the signature of a man named Virgil, "an erstwhile neighbour of yours who had died some months earlier", Judge Marks said.

"Following his death you have managed to gain access to his room and you took from that room, various papers of his, including his passport, as well as his mobile phone," he said.

"A short time later you rang a phone company pretending to be him, giving his name and date of birth and you had the phone reactivated."

Ms Chong's sister Amy Chong joined the hearing by video link from Malaysia and provided a victim impact statement to be read by the prosecution.

In it she said she suffers sleepless nights and was "shocked and saddened" she had to go through "such a horrifying ordeal and tragic" death.

"We still do not understand how she died. Did she suffer? This mystery will haunt me forever," she said.

Before proceedings began, Mitchell blew kisses to her mother with whom she shared the £4m family home in north-west London, who was sitting in the public gallery.

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Speaking outside court, the defendant's mother Hillary Collard said she was "absolutely agog" that her daughter had been convicted with so little forensic evidence and vowed to appeal.

She claimed there was no dead body in the suitcase and it was instead full of "crockery, cutlery and tea towels".

She added: "She offered me to go to Salcombe with her. If she had a dead body she would not have asked me to go with her, would she?"

Following her conviction, Det Ch Insp Jim Eastwood said: "Mitchell has never accepted responsibility for Ms Chong's murder so there are questions which remain unanswered.

"Why she kept her body for a fortnight, why she decapitated her, why she deposited her remains in Salcombe.

"What we do know is that these were evil acts carried out by an evil woman and the only motive clearly was one of financial gain."

There's more on this story on podcast Five Minutes On The Suitcase Murderer, at BBC Sounds.