Jemma Mitchell

The offence

What the court heard

She was found guilty of murder in Wembley, north-west London, on 11 June 2021. SENTENCING HEARING RECORDED AND BROADCAST Sentencing Remarks 1. Jemma Mitchell, I have to sentence you for the murder on 11th June 2021 of MeeKuen, otherwise known as Deborah Chong (DC), of which you were convicted by the jury yesterday. 2. I have had regard to the victim impact statements read to the court from 2 members of her family who are not unnaturally in a state of shock and devastation as to the circumstances in which she met her death. 3. As has no doubt been explained to you by your counsel, the only sentence which the court can impose for murder is one of life imprisonment, but I am required to fix a minimum term which you must serve in any event before you would be eligible to be considered for parole. 4. Whether or not you will be released at the end of the minimum term will depend on the view taken by the parole board at that time as to whether you continue to represent a danger to other members of the public. 5. I am in no doubt whatsoever that this was a murder done for gain and as such, pursuant to Schedule 21 of the Sentencing Act 2020, the starting point must be one of 30 years imprisonment, a figure which falls to be adjusted according to the mitigating and aggravating features of the case, which is a topic to which I shall return. 6. You are now 38 years of age. You have one minor previous conviction for breach of a non molestation order, which arose in a domestic context. I propose to ignore that and to treat you as a women of previous good character. 7. You are clearly a highly intelligent woman having obtained first class honours in 2006 in human sciences from Kings College, London, and then gone on to qualify as an osteopath. You then went to live and work in Australia, returning to live here, with your mother, in 2015. 8. You lived together in a large property in North London and the 2 of you decided to add an upper floor to the house. This proved to be your undoing. You and your mother paid a total of £230,000 to 2 builders, one of whom evidently cheated you and you were thereby exhausted of a large part of your resources, but the work remained substantially unfinished and the house was left without a roof and covered in scaffolding. 9. Meanwhile, you met the victim in this case through the church. She, like you, was a very devout Christian and it is clear from the 100s of phone messages that passed between you over a period of several months right…

Aggravating and mitigating factors

Good Character / No (relevant) previous convictions; Planned / Premeditated / Degree of Planning; Vulnerable victim; Carried out for gain / Greed; Desecration / Mutilation / Dismembering victim

Around this case

• Central Criminal Court Crown Court
• Prosecuted by Crown Prosecution Service
• Investigated by Metropolitan Police Service