London Woman Charged With Murder Of UK-Based Malaysian Whose Body Was Found Without A Head
The first photograph of the alleged murderer has been published after she was charged in court.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 15 Jul 2021, 06:02 PM
A 36-year-old who allegedly murdered a Malaysian based in the UK has been arrested and charged in a London court on Tuesday, 13 July
36-year-old Jemma Mitchell appeared at the Old Bailey — which is the Central Criminal Court — to face the murder charge, reported local daily Evening Standard.
Mitchell was called in to the court via a video link from Bronzefield prison.
She is accused of murdering 67-year-old Chong Mee Kuen — or Mee Kuen Chong as reported in the UK media — who went missing on 11 June.
Chong, known to her friends as Deborah, was originally from Malaysia, but had been living in London for over 30 years, according to The Guardian.
Her body was found without a head some 350km away from her Wembley home in Devon on 27 June.
At that time, the police said the case was "unexplainable".
"The defendant is charged with the murder of Deborah Chong, committed some time in June this year," said prosecutor Ben Lloyd
Mitchell did not speak throughout the hearing other than to confirm her identity with the court.
Evening Standard reported that the accused was taking notes during the brief hearing.
Revealing some details of the murder, Lloyd said Chong's death had been "particularly unpleasant and violent", whereby her body was allegedly "transported from London to the area where she was eventually found in Devon at the end of June".
The accused is due to appear at court on 28 September to enter a plea to the murder charge.
While Chong's body was taken to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital for a post-mortem on 28 June, up until now, the cause of death has not been ascertained
The Guardian reported that the investigation is still ongoing as the crime scenes still remain at two residential premises in northwest London and at woodland in south Devon. The police are expected to continue their searches in the coming days.
On Tuesday, Daily Mail published the first photograph of the accused on its site.
The tabloid reported that Chong's family has been informed about the new development and was given support by trained officers.
Although the public has yet to learn about the motive behind the alleged murder, Hau-Yu Tam, the head of 'End The Virus Of Racism' campaign group, had in early July asked the police whether Chong's death was racially motivated, reported Devon Live.
"I am going to be writing to the Brent and Metropolitan Police. It's very hard to say at this stage but we definitely think it could have been a racially motivated matter. There is a lot of soft-pedalling around race hate crimes," the daily quoted Tam as saying on 1 July.
"It's only in the last year and a half that racism against the East and Southeast Asian community has risen into the public consciousness. If this is racially-aggravated, why tip-toe around that fact?"
