Jemma Mitchell

Jemma Mitchell (born 22 July 1984) is an Australian-born English former osteopath who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2021 murder of her friend, Mee Kuen Chong (known as Deborah).

Mitchell killed Chong at the latter's home in Wembley, following a disagreement over the withdrawal of an offer of financial help to fund a property renovation.

Mitchell put Chong's decapitated body in a suitcase and drove 200 mi to Devon to dispose of it in woodland.

The case is notable for being the first trial with a murder conviction in England and Wales to have its sentencing phase televised, and the first televised sentencing of a woman in the UK.

At the sentencing hearing, which took place at the Old Bailey in London on 28 October 2022, Mitchell was sentenced by presiding judge Richard Marks KC to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 34 years.

Jemma Mitchell was born and grew up in Australia, where her mother worked for the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

She moved to the UK with her mother and sister after her parents' marriage ended, and studied at King Edward's School, Witley.

In 2004 she attended King's College London to study a human sciences degree.

The qualification included a course titled "Structural Basis of Human Functioning" during which she learnt to dissect the human body, and another module covering Experimental Anatomy.

She demonstrated such skill during her study of the topic that she was awarded the Hamilton Prize for Anatomical Excellence, and graduated with a First Class Honours.

After studying osteopathy at the British School of Osteopathy she returned to Australia, where she set herself up as an osteopath.

She relocated back to the UK in 2015, but continued to own a property in Helensvale, Queensland.

She did not work after 2015, as she was not registered with the General Osteopathic Council and could therefore not practise in the UK.

Mitchell shared a house with her mother, who was retired, and her sister, in Willesden, north west London; the property was worth £4 million, but in a state of disrepair, and had been owned by the family for several generations.

Mitchell is said to have had a turbulent relationship with her sister, and had a 2016 conviction for breaching a non-molestation order relating to her sister and brother-in-law; she was given a conditional discharge for the offence by North West London Magistrates' Court.

In or around August 2020, Mitchell met Mee Kuen Chong (known as Deborah) at a church they both attended, and the two women, described as "devout Christians", became friends.

Chong, originally from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, had lived in London for 30 years.

She was a widow, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, and was taking antipsychotic medication to manage the condition.

She is said to have believed that Mitchell was "curing" her illness with spiritual healing, and that she was having a relationship with Prince Charles, with whom she believed she could communicate via YouTube.

Prior to her death she had been exhibiting erratic behaviour, and was referred by the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre to her local community mental health team for sending letters to Prince Charles and Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Another friend, who attended church with Chong, described her as having a sweet and childlike nature.

Mitchell and her mother planned to make improvements to their property, adding another floor to the house, but were cheated out of £230,000 by two builders they had hired for the project.

Chong agreed to give Mitchell £200,000, and the two exchanged numerous text messages on the subject.

But Chong later withdrew the offer, and urged Mitchell to sell the house and "enjoy" the money instead.

On the morning of 11 June 2021, Mitchell travelled to Chong's house in Wembley, north London, carrying a large blue suitcase.

It is believed she then killed Chong and put her body in the suitcase, breaking Chong's ribs in the process, before taking the suitcase with her when she left the property several hours later.

She also stole documents from Chong's house, and together with documents stolen from a recently-deceased neighbour, she later attempted to use them to forge a will leaving the bulk of Chong's £700,000 estate to herself.

Chong, who had last been seen alive on 10 June, was reported missing by her lodger on 11 June.

When Mitchell was questioned by police as to Chong's whereabouts, she said Chong had gone to stay with family friends "somewhere close to the ocean", and that she had been feeling "depressed".

Mitchell stored the suitcase in the garden of the house she shared with her mother for two weeks.

After reactivating her deceased neighbour's mobile phone, then using it to hire a car, on 26 June, she drove 200 mile to Salcombe in Devon to dispose of the body, and dumped it on a woodland path near Bennett Road.

The body, with the head missing, was found by holidaymakers the following day.

A police search subsequently found the head four days later, around 10 m away from the rest of the body.

Chong was 67.

Chong's body was too badly decomposed to determine a cause of death, but a post mortem did ascertain that Chong had received a fracture to the skull.

Mitchell was arrested on 6 July 2021, and subsequently charged with Chong's murder.

During her custodial interrogation with the Metropolitan Police, she repeatedly told investigators, "No comment."

She appeared at Willesden Magistrates' Court on 10 July, where she was remanded in custody pending a hearing at the Old Bailey.

On 13 July 2021 she appeared via videolink from Bronzefield Prison, where a plea hearing was set for 28 September.

She was further remanded until then by Judge Mark Lucraft QC.