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 accused of killing Mee Kuen Chong, 67, at her Wembley home before dumping her body more than 250 miles away in Salcombe, Devon.
The 38-year-old allegedly needed £400,000 to modernize her London home and had pressured Ms Chong to give her some money.
When Ms Chong refused, Mitchell is alleged to have killed her on June 11 after hitting her head and fracturing her skull with a blunt object, the Old Bailey heard.
Both were devout Christians who met through church and had known each other since August 2020, the jury was told.
Jemma Mitchell 38, is accused of killing Mee Kuen Chong, 67, at her Wembley home before dumping her body more than 250 miles away in Salcombe, Devon .
Previously, a pathologist said that Ms. Chong’s head injury could have been caused by a blow from a weapon or a violent push.
Mitchell then moved her body in a blue suitcase to her half-abandoned home and kept it there for two weeks before driving to Devon in a rented Volvo, the jury heard.
The head was found ten meters away and had been ‘cleanly severed’ from the rest of the body.
Mitchell had been a brilliant medical student and had won a prestigious award for her knowledge of the human body.
After her murder, she allegedly became the main beneficiary of the victim’s will.
Prosecutor Deanna Heer, KC, said: “On June 11, 2021, Deborah Chong disappeared from her home. 15 days later, on June 27, 2021, her body was found 200 miles away in Devon. Decapitated and thrown away.
Mitchell killed Ms. Chong on June 11 after hitting her head and fracturing her skull with a blunt object, she said.
“There is one person who connects those two events and that is defendant Jemma Mitchell.”
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Ms. Heer told the jury that the murder and the concealment of Ms. Chong’s body were done “quite deliberately for a purpose: money.”
She said: ‘The defendant wanted someone to pay for the reparations and in Deborah Chong he found that person.
Someone who is vulnerable. Someone who is quick to offer money to help people. Someone who was obviously mentally unstable. Someone who can be taken advantage of, flattered and convinced to give money.
‘Deborah Chong withdrew help from her and the defendant set out to kill her, forged her will, and that is exactly what the evidence shows she did.
With the evidence that has been presented to him, he can be sure that it is true.
Ms Heer said the lack of forensic evidence uncovered during the investigation was not unusual “where the perpetrator sets out to cover his tracks and where he has the knowledge and ability to do so”.
Comparing the facts of the case to a puzzle, Ms Heer said: “There are gaps in the evidence, things you would like to know, but that doesn’t stop you from seeing the picture.”
‘This was not a spontaneous murder. She thought it over. She thought it was such an easy thing to get away with and she didn’t think it through enough.
“I ask that when you consider any individual evidence, you consider it in the context of the other evidence.
“It clearly shows that Jemma Mitchell is guilty of the murder of Deborah Chong, that is the only conclusion that fits the totality of the evidence.”
Mitchell, from Brondesbury Park, Willesden, northwest London, denies the murder but has refused to testify.
Judge Richard Marks has said jurors could also consider a manslaughter charge on the basis that the Australian-born Mitchell did not intend to kill Ms Chong.
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