Moment ‘evil’ killer is arrested after decapitating friend and dumping body
Jemma Mitchell will serve a minimum of 34 years in prison
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Police bodycam footage has revealed the moment an “extremely devious” therapist who murdered and decapitated her Christian friend was arrested at her home.
Jemma Mitchell, 38, was found guilty on Thursday of beheading 67-year-old Mee Kuen Chong and transporting her body 200 miles in a suitcase to dump it in woodland.
The 38-year-old on Friday became the first woman to be sentenced on television in the UK when a judge ruled she must spend at least 34 years behind bars.
New CCTV footage released by the Metropolitan Police has now shown the moment the osteopath was arrested at her home in Willesden, north west London.
The clip shows the dramatic moment officers smashed down Mitchell’s door before arresting the killer, who was visibly shocked by the police presence.
Mitchell looked surprised as officers handcuffed her and told her she was being arrested on suspicion of murder before asking if anyone else was in the home.
Handcuffed Mitchell calmly asked if she could put shoes on, to which officers reply that everything would be explained.
During the trial, the court also watched CCTV footage of Mitchell dragging a bulky suitcase around London for two hours after murdering her friend.
Jurors at the Old Bailey watched CCTV clips that tracked Ms Chong’s last-known sighting and Mitchell’s movements around that time.
Ms Chong was seen walking for exercise on Chaplin Road, where she lived in northwest London, on 9 June.
Mitchell was seen walking from her home in Willesden with a large blue suitcase and backpack shortly before 6.30am two days later.
She arrived in Chaplin Road around 8am and emerged just over five hours later carrying the blue suitcase and another smaller bag containing Ms Chong’s financial paperwork.
Mitchell was captured on CCTV dragging the bags on the street and through a grass verge for two hours before being picked up by a minicab.
In that time, jurors heard she had called various cab companies nine times before a driver collected her for the 40-minute journey home.
She was dropped outside her next door neighbour’s house and then transferred the suitcases from the driveway to her home.
Later that evening, she went to St Thomas’s Hospital in central London to be treated for a broken finger, saying she shut it in a door – a claim judge Richard Marks said could only be caused in the process of murdering Ms Chong.
Reading his sentencing statement, Mr Marks KC said Mitchell went to Ms Chong’s home with murder in mind.
“Two weeks later you hired a car for a period of only 24 hours, you were seen on CCTV to put that large suitcase into the hire car. It was clearly heavy, such that you needed a trolley to wheel it down the road and into the car,” Mr Marks KC said.
“That is because it contained Deborah's body. Your plans went awry when you had a puncture that had to be attended to by the AA, this meant that you had rather less time down there to find a place to secrete the body than you had envisaged. Hence why you were unable to find a more remote location than you did.”
The court heard the blue suitcase was not seen again until 26 June last year.
That day, it is alleged Mitchell hired a car and drove to Salcombe with the body in the suitcase stashed in the boot. Jurors were shown more video footage of Mitchell stopping off near Bristol and later turning into a Co-op garage near Salcombe with a flat tyre.
The CCTV showed an AA repairman changing the wheel before the Volvo is seen on Bennett Road just metres from the spot where Ms Chong’s body was dumped.
Mitchell arrived back in London shortly before 7am on 27 June last year.
Detective chief inspector Jim Eastwood, who led the investigation, described it as a “truly despicable crime”.
He said: “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.”