Former osteopath ‘decapitated’ pensioner ‘who refused to give her money’ for a home renovation

A body dissection expert accused of killing and beheading a pensioner used her “knowledge and skill” to cover her tracks after the murder, a court heard today.

Former osteopath Jemma Mitchell, 38, is charged with murder Mee Kuen Chong, 67, at her home in Wembley before dumping her body more than 400 kilometers away in Salcombe, Devon.

The 38-year-old reportedly needed £400,000 to modernize her London home and had pressured Ms Chong to give her some money.

When Ms Chong refused, Mitchell allegedly killed Ms Chong on June 11 after hitting her head and breaking her skull with a blunt object. the Old Bailey heard it.

Both were devout Christians who met through church and have known each other ever since August 2020 the judges were told.

Earlier, a pathologist said: Ms. Chong’s head injury may have been caused by a blow with a weapon or a violent shove.

Mitchell then moved the body in a blue suitcase to her half-derelict home and kept it there for two weeks before driving a rented Volvo to Devon, the jury heard.

The head was found ten meters away and had been ‘cleanly cut off’ from the rest of the body.

Mitchell had been a brilliant medical student and won a prestigious award for her knowledge of the human body.

After the murder, she is said to have made herself the main beneficiary of the victim’s will.

Prosecutor Deanna Heer, KC, said: “On June 11, 2021, Deborah Chong went missing from her home. 15 days later, on June 27, 2021, her body was found 200 miles away in Devon. Decapitated and dumped.

Mitchell killed Ms Chong on June 11 after hitting her head and breaking her skull with a blunt object, it was alleged.

“There is one person who connects those two events and that is the Defendant Jemma Mitchell.”

Ms Heer told the jury that the killing and hiding of Ms Chong’s body was all “done very deliberately for one purpose – money.”

She said: ‘The defendant wanted someone to pay for repairs and she found that person in Deborah Chong.

‘Someone who is vulnerable. Someone who offers money too quickly to help people. Someone who was clearly mentally unstable. Someone who could be abused, flattered and convinced to give money.

“Deborah Chong withdrew her help and the defendant wanted to kill her, forged her will, and that’s exactly what the evidence proves she did.

“Based on the evidence presented to you, you can be sure that’s the truth.”

Both Mitchell and Ms. Chong were devout Christians who met through church and had known each other since August 2020, the judges were told.

Ms Heer said the lack of forensic evidence revealed during the investigation was not unusual “when the perpetrator is trying to cover his tracks and where he has the knowledge and ability to do so”.

Ms Heer compared the facts of the case to a jigsaw puzzle and said: ‘There are gaps in the evidence, things you would like to know, but that doesn’t stop you from seeing the photo.

“This was not a spontaneous murder. She’s thought it through carefully. She thought it was so easy to get away with murder and she didn’t think twice about it.

“I ask that when you consider a single piece of evidence, you consider it in the context of the other evidence.

“It clearly shows that Jemma Mitchell is guilty of murdering Deborah Chong, that’s the only conclusion that fits the totality of the evidence.”

Mitchell, of Brondesbury Park, Willesden, North West London, denies murder, but she refuses to testify.

Judge Richard Marks has said jurors may also consider a manslaughter charge on the basis that Australian-born Mitchell had no intention of killing Ms Chong.

The case continues.