A self-styled healer has change into the primary lady in England to be handed a life sentence on tv after being discovered responsible of murdering her buddy, whose headless physique was dumped in Devon.
Jemma Mitchell was advised she is going to serve at the very least 34 years in jail for killing 67-year-old Mee Kuen Chong at her London dwelling in June final yr.
Two weeks after the homicide, she drove greater than 200 miles to the seaside city of Salcombe in Devon the place she left religious Christian Ms Chong’s decapitated and badly decomposed physique in woods.
The prosecution claimed 38-year-old Mitchell hatched a plan to homicide the susceptible widow after befriending her by means of a church group.
When Ms Chong backed out of giving her £200,000 to pay for repairs to her rundown £4 million dwelling, Mitchell killed her and cast a will to inherit the majority of her property – price greater than £700,000.
The skilled osteopath, who boasted on-line of her award-winning talent in human dissection, had denied having something to do with Ms Chong’s dying – however declined to offer proof at her trial.
Mitchell stood impassively within the dock as she was discovered responsible of homicide whereas Ms Chong’s household in Malaysia watched the decision by way of a video hyperlink on Thursday.
On Friday, Decide Richard Marks KC was broadcast handing down his sentence to Mitchell on the Outdated Bailey.
It is just the second time cameras have been allowed into an English legal crown courtroom to document a sentencing, and the primary in a homicide case by which the defendant is a girl.
In the course of the trial, jurors seen CCTV footage of Mitchell arriving at Ms Chong’s dwelling carrying a big blue suitcase on the morning of June 11 final yr.
Greater than 4 hours later, she emerged from the property in Wembley, north-west London, with the suitcase showing bulkier and heavier.
She additionally had together with her a smaller bag stuffed with Ms Chong’s monetary paperwork, which had been later recovered from Mitchell’s dwelling.
After Ms Chong was reported lacking, Mitchell claimed she had gone to go to household associates “someplace near the ocean” as she was feeling “depressed”.
In actuality, Mitchell had decapitated Ms Chong and saved her stays within the backyard of the home she shared together with her retired mom in Willesden, north-west London, the prosecution instructed.
On June 26 final yr, she stowed the physique contained in the suitcase within the boot of a rent automobile and drove to Devon.
Ms Chong’s headless physique was discovered by holidaymakers beside a woodland footpath close to the picturesque city of Salcombe the following day.
Following a police search of the realm, Ms Chong’s head was recovered a couple of metres away from the physique.
A autopsy examination discovered cranium fractures which might have been from a blow to the top and damaged ribs, mentioned to have been brought on by the physique being stuffed into the suitcase.
A search of Mitchell’s dwelling uncovered Ms Chong’s faux will and private papers.
The blue suitcase had been saved on the roof of a neighbour’s shed.
Though no forensic proof was recovered from the suitcase, Ms Chong’s DNA was recognized on a bloodstained tea towel in a pocket.
Jurors heard that Ms Chong had suffered from schizophrenia and was referred for assist after writing letters to the then-Prince of Wales and likewise the then prime minister, Boris Johnson.
Mitchell had grown up in Australia, the place her mom labored for the British International Workplace and had arrange an osteopathy enterprise there earlier than returning to the UK in 2015.
On her web site, she had claimed she was “attuned to topics in neuroanatomy, genetics and dissection of human cadavers”.
Following her conviction, Detective Chief Inspector Jim Eastwood, who led the investigation, mentioned: “Mitchell has by no means accepted accountability for Deborah’s homicide so there are questions which stay unanswered.
“Why she saved her physique for a fortnight, why she decapitated her, why she deposited her stays in Salcombe.
“What we do know is that these had been evil acts carried out by an evil lady and the one motive clearly was one among monetary acquire.”
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