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LONDON—A ‘pious Christian’ murdered his friend, decapitated him, and dumped his headless body on a public sidewalk 200 miles away. The family happened to pass by on a holiday walk, a London jury heard.
Gemma Mitchell, 38, denies killing Mee Kuen Chung, 67, in June 2021 and placing her body and head near Salcombe in southern Devon.
A jury at London’s Old Bailey heard on Tuesday how Charlotte Rawlings and her family made a “grisly discovery” when they strolled near their vacation cottage on June 27, 2021. I was.
Prosecutor Deana Heer (KC) said the head was found three days later, she said. The skull was fractured above the right eye socket. The pattern of fractures suggests it was the result of severe impact with a blunt object just prior to death. “
Born in Malaysia and known as Deborah, Chong suffers from schizophrenia and took antipsychotic drugs in May 2021 after repeatedly writing “strange” letters to Prince Charles and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. was injected with
Heer said it was last seen on June 10, 2021.
Heer told jurors that Mitchell visited Chong’s home in Wembley, London on 11 June 2021 and was last seen carrying two suitcases by CCTV cameras nearby.
Prosecutors claimed the suitcase contained Chung’s body, which Mitchell transported to Devon in a rented Volvo car, driving toward the area where the body and later the head were found on CCTV. claimed to have been found.
Heer said Mitchell is a trained osteopath, won an award for his knowledge of anatomy at university, and lived with his mother, Hilary Pollard, who previously worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Prosecutors said Pollard had decided to build a third floor in his Bronzebury Park home, but the project ran into problems after the builder went bankrupt.
Heer said in June 2021 that the house lacked a proper roof and was covered with scaffolding.
Victim offered £200,000 but ‘changed his mind’
She said that Chung and Mitchell were both “devout Christians” and that Chung would spend £200,000 of his own money to complete the building work, on the condition that the house would be used for “Christian worship”. $220,000).
But she changed her mind on June 7, 2021, four days before she went missing, jurors said.
At trial, it was said that Mitchell tried to convince Chung to start a charity and donate the house to avoid inheritance tax.
Heer said Mitchell had a science degree from King’s College in London and had taken a course on how to dissect cadavers.
Prosecutors said Mitchell boasted on an osteopathic website that he was an expert in dissecting “human cadavers.”
On Wednesday, Heer said Juror Chong’s lodger, David Klein, texted the defendant on June 12, 2021, saying she had gone missing.
Mitchell replied: She said Monday she plans to stay with a friend of her family for a year to clear her head… Somewhere near the ocean, she’s depressed about a home visit by a mental team. I said yes.
Prosecutors said Mitchell stayed home for the next two weeks, but on June 26, 2021, she rented a Volvo and transported Chung’s body to Devon in a blue suitcase.
At one point, a wheel on the car was damaged, Heer said, and a mechanic at a garage near Salcombe told a female driver to turn on the AA.
The suitcase was not in the car when AA’s Lee Gurdin arrived and changed the spare wheel, but the driver told him he was going to “watch the sunrise” before heading back to London.
By 6:44 a.m., however, Mitchell was home, changed, and then returned the Volvo to the rental company, refusing to pay for the damaged wheel, saying it was “not my fault.”
The trial is expected to last three weeks.
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