Jemma Mitchell found guilty of murdering and decapitating her friend after row over money
A woman has been found guilty of murdering and decapitating her friend in a row over money.
Jemma Mitchell, 38, had been accused of killing pensioner Mee Kuen Chong and dumping her headless body more than 200 miles away in Devon in order to inherit hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Mitchell, an alternative therapist, hit the 67-year-old over the head with a weapon at her London home and left her decapitated and badly decomposed body in woods in Salcombe, two weeks later.
Jemma Mitchell
The prosecution claimed Mitchell had planned to murder the divorcee, known as Deborah, and fake her will to inherit the majority of her estate which was worth more than £700,000.
Mitchell denied having anything to do with her friend’s death and declined to give evidence at her trial at the Old Bailey.
Met Police Detective Chief Inspector Jim Eastwood, who led the investigation, described it as a “truly despicable crime”.
“The motivation for Jemma Mitchell’s actions was money and she showed a significant degree of planning and calculation as she attempted to cover up her horrific actions. The cold facts of this case are shocking,” he added.
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.
Ms Chong. Pic: Met Police
Remains stored in the garden
More than four hours later, she emerged from the property in Wembley, northwest London, 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 ‘Jemma Mitchell dragging bulky suitcase’
After Ms Chong’s lodger reported her missing, Mitchell claimed she had gone to visit family friends “somewhere close to the ocean”.
The prosecution suggested Mitchell had decapitated Ms Chong and stored her remains in the garden of the house she shared with her retired mother in Willesden, northwest London.
On June 26 last year, Mitchell stowed the body inside the suitcase in the boot of a hire car and drove to Devon.
Mitchell entering a service station shop near Bristol on her way to Devon. Pic: From CCTV issued by Met Police
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.
The site in Salcombe where Mitchell dumped Mee Kuen Chong’s body. Pic: Met Police
The suitcase used by Mitchell. Pic: Met 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.
Mitchell was remanded into custody and will be sentenced on Friday.
Birmingham band UB40 say the city’s striking bin workers and their union should “keep fighting” in their dispute over pay.
It comes as the government and the council urged them to accept a “fair and reasonable offer”.
“We’re fully on their side,” drummer Jimmy Brown told Sky News. “I think they shouldn’t give up, they should still be fighting.
“Working people shouldn’t have to take a reduction in their incomes, which is what we’re talking about here.
“We’re talking about people being paid less and it seems to me with prices going up, heating, buying food, inflation and rents going up then people need a decent wage to have a half decent life… keep going boys!”
Members of the Unite union in Birmingham earlier this month. Pic: PA
Workers joined picket lines again on Thursday, with some fearing they could be up to £600 a month worse off if they accept the terms.
“We have total utter support for the bin men and all trade unions,” said guitarist Robin Campbell.
“The other side is always going to say they’ve made a reasonable offer – the point is they’re the ones who’ve messed up, they’re the ones who’ve gone bankrupt, they’re the ones now trying to reduce the bin men’s wages.”
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Lead singer Matt Doyle told Sky News: “It’s a shame that what we’re seeing is all the images of rats and rubbish building up, that is going to happen inevitably, but we’ve just got to keep fighting through that.”
About 22,000 tonnes of rubbish accumulated on the city’s streets after a major incident was declared last month by Birmingham City Council.
Rubbish has blighted the city’s streets for weeks . Pic: PA
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Bin situation ‘pains me’ – council boss
On a visit to the city, local government minister Jim McMahon said the union and local authority should continue to meet in “good faith” and the government felt there was a deal that could be “marshalled around”.
He paid tribute to the “hundreds of workers” who have worked “around the clock” to clear the rubbish.
Read more:
Bin workers urged to accept ‘fair’ offer
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“As we stand here today, 85% of that accumulated waste has been cleared and the council have a plan in place now to make sure it doesn’t accumulate going forward,” said Mr McMahon.
Sky News understands talks are not set to resume until next week.
Trans women in British Transport Police custody will now be strip searched by male officers – not female – following Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling.
The force said it is introducing an “interim position” while it digests the Supreme Court’s decision that the definition of a “woman” under the Equality Act 2010 refers to “a biological woman and biological sex”.
A British Transport Police (BTP) Authority spokesman told Sky News: “Under previous policy, we had advised that someone with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) may be searched in accordance with their acquired sex.
“However, as an interim position while we digest today’s judgment, we have advised our officers that any same sex searches in custody are to be undertaken in accordance with the biological birth sex of the detainee.”
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In September last year, BTP, which is responsible for policing the UK’s railways and similar transport systems, published its “position” on transgender and non-binary officers carrying out strip searches.
It said officers would “only be able to search persons of the same sex on their birth or gender recognition certificate (GRC).
Officers who identified as another gender but who did not have a GRC were not allowed to, but if a trans woman had a certificate, they could strip search a female detainee.
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Gender ruling – How it happened
Strip searches involve the removal of more than a jacket, outer coat, gloves, headwear and footwear.
They “expose buttocks, genitalia and (female) breasts”, the BTP guidance says.
The Sex Matters campaign applied for a judicial review of that guidance with the High Court in December.
It said the policy “puts detainees at risk of sexual harassment and sexual assault”, and said it was a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.
Sex Matters said the policy “also puts female officers in a humiliating and dangerous position, as they may be pressured to search trans-identified men”.
Read more: NHS must stop trans people being allowed on single-sex wars
Campaigners celebrated outside the Supreme Court after Wednesday’s ruling. Pic: PA
One of the High Court judges who made Wednesday’s decision, Lord Hodge, said the ruling should not be read as “a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another”.
Government minister Karin Smyth told Sky News public bodies have been told to look at how equality laws are implemented following the ruling.
She said: “Obviously, public bodies have been asked to look at their own guidance.
“And we will do that very, very carefully.”
But she warned against public bodies making statements “that may alarm people”, telling them to take their time to look at their guidance.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, chair of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said the ruling means there is “no confusion” now.
She said the NHS will “have to change” its 2019 policy, which says transgender patients are entitled to be accommodated on single-sex wards matching how they identify.
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