A woman has been sentenced to 34 years for murdering and decapitating her friend in a row over money.
Jemma Mitchell, 38, became the first woman in the UK to be sentenced live on television for killing Mee Kuen Chong, 67, also known as Deborah, and dumping her headless body in some woodlands more than 200 miles away in Salcombe, Devon.
Jemma Mitchell sentencing – live updates
Sentencing her on Friday, Judge Richard Marks KC described her as “extremely devious”.
“You have shown absolutely no remorse,” he told her at the Old Bailey.
“It appears you are in complete denial as to what you did, despite the overwhelming evidence against you.
“The enormity of your crime is profoundly shocking, even more so given your apparent religious devotion as well as the fact that Deborah Chong was a good friend to you and had shown you good kindness,” he said.
Judge Marks said that Mitchell and her mother were living in a house in Willesden, northwest London, and had been cheated out of most of the £230,000 they paid two builders to add another floor to the property.
“This proved to be your undoing,” he said.
Mitchell, an alternative therapist, was given £200,000 by her victim, but decided to kill her and fake a will to inherit the rest of Ms Chong’s estate.
Mitchell denied having anything to do with her death and declined to give evidence during the trial.
Jurors viewed CCTV footage of Mitchell arriving at Ms Chong’s home carrying a large blue suitcase, allegedly containing her murder kit, on the morning of 11 June last year.
More than four hours later, she emerged from the property in Wembley with the suitcase appearing bulkier and heavier.
The prosecution said CCTV appeared to show Mitchell struggling to carry the unwieldy suitcase because it contained a body. She also had a bag of Ms Chong’s financial documents, which were later recovered from Mitchell’s home.
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CCTV of Mitchell with the blue suitcase in London
After Ms Chong’s lodger reported her missing, Mitchell claimed she had gone to visit family friends “somewhere close to the ocean”.
The prosecution said Mitchell had decapitated Ms Chong and stored her remains in the garden of the house she shared with her retired mother.
On 26 June last year, Mitchell stowed the body inside the suitcase in the boot of a hire car and drove to Devon.
Woodlands in Salcombe, Devon where Ms Chong’s remains were found
The blue suitcase used to transport Ms Chong’s body
Headless body found by holidaymakers
On her way to Salcombe, Mitchell was forced to drive into a service station after the car blew a tyre. A repairman who changed the wheel described an “odd musty smell” inside the vehicle.
Ms Chong’s headless body was found by holidaymakers beside a woodland footpath near Salcombe the next day.
Her skull was recovered a few metres away from the body following a police search.
A post-mortem examination confirmed that Ms Chong had suffered a skull fracture along with other injuries consistent with an assault.
Mitchell being arrested by police
Forged will found in Mitchell’s home
The court heard that Mitchell and Ms Chong, who met through church, had exchanged several messages about renovating Mitchell’s home in Willesden.
Jurors were told that Mitchell came up with the plan to murder Ms Chong after she backed out of giving her £200,000 to pay for repairs for Mitchell’s £4m dilapidated family home.
After her corpse was discovered, police found a forged will of Ms Chong’s leaving the bulk of her estate to Mitchell.
The blue suitcase had been stored on the roof of a neighbour’s shed and although no forensic evidence was recovered from it, Ms Chong’s DNA was identified on a bloodstained tea towel in a pocket.
On her website, Mitchell had claimed she was “attuned to subjects in neuroanatomy, genetics and dissection of human cadavers”. It can now be reported that she has a conviction for a breach of a non-molestation order relating to family members.