Murder accused seen dragging suitcase on street for hours, jury told

The body of Mee Kuen Chong, from London, was found more than 200 miles away in Devon

A woman accused of murdering her friend was seen on video dragging a suitcase around the streets of London after carrying out the alleged killing and putting the body inside, a court heard.

Jemma Mitchell, 38, is accused of killing and decapitating Mee Kuen Chong, 67, at her Wembley home in 2021.

She allegedly then deposited the headless corpse more than 200 miles away in Salcombe, Devon, 15 days later.

The Old Bailey was shown CCTV tracking Ms Chong's last known sighting.

On 9 June 2021, the CCTV footage showed Ms Chong, also known as Deborah, walking in Chaplin Road where she lived, accompanied by her lodger.

Two days later, in the early morning, defendant Ms Mitchell was seen on footage walking from her home in Willesden with a large blue suitcase and backpack, going in the direction of Ms Chong's house in Wembley at 08:01.

Just over five hours later, she emerged carrying the blue suitcase and another smaller bag allegedly containing Ms Chong's financial paperwork.

The defendant was also seen on CCTV footage, shown to the jury, dragging the bags on the street and through a grass verge for two hours before being picked up by a minicab.

In that time, she had called various cab companies nine times before a driver collected her for the 40-minute journey home, the jury was told.

Jemma Mitchell's professional website said she was "attuned to subjects" including "dissection of human cadavers", jurors heard

Later that evening, the jury heard, 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 the prosecution say is a lie.

The court heard the blue suitcase was not seen again until 26 June 2021, when the prosecution alleges Ms Mitchell hired a car and drove to Salcombe with the suitcase containing the body in the boot.

Ms Chong's decapitated body was discovered in woods by holidaymakers the next day and her skull was found in nearby undergrowth a few days later.

Jurors previously heard the prosecution allege that Ms Mitchell had killed Ms Chong because she wanted to get hundreds of thousands of pounds to pay for repairs to her home.

Ms Mitchell has denied murder and the trial continues.