We're now pausing our live coverage of the Jemma Mitchell sentencing hearing, shortly after the 38-year-old was given life imprisonment at the Old Bailey this morning.

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At the Old Bailey, Judge Richard Marks KC handed down the sentence - which is the first televised sentencing of a woman and also for the crime of murder in England and Wales.

Jemma Mitchell, 38, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 34 years for the murder of 67-year-old Mee Kuen Chong.

The sentencing hearing of Jemma Mitchell, the first murder trial in England and Wales to have its sentencing broadcast, has now finished in the Old Bailey. Here's a recap of what happened.

• Judge Richard Marks KC sentenced the 38-year-old to life in prison, with a minimum term of 34 years to be served
• Mitchell, who killed her friend Mee Kuen Chong and dumped her decapitated body in Devon last year, was described as "extremely devious" by the judge
• Judge Marks described the "grim discovery" of Ms Chong's remains and how Mitchell carried out a number of forgeries with the intention of stealing from Ms Chong's estate
• He said Mitchell showed "no remorse and is in complete denial" about the crime, which he described as "profoundly shocking"
• Amy Chong, sister of Ms Chong, said in a statement read out to the court that she and their family "can't imagine how life will go on" without her and that the Malaysian custom of burying now cannot happen

Image source, Metropolitan Police handout

The judge finished his remarks by sentencing Mitchell to life imprisonment, with a minimum sentence of 34 years, as we reported a little earlier.

Four hundred and seventy five days will be deducted for the days she has spent in custody on remand and the statutory surcharge will apply.

Mitchell has been taken downstairs. We'll bring you a recap shortly.

Image source, Metropolitan Police

The judge says that the sole mitigation when considering the length of Mitchell's minimum term is that "you are effectively a woman of previously good character".

"Although given the gravity of your crime, in my judgement that entitles you to only a very modest discount," he adds.

"As to aggravating features, there are the following," Judge Marks says:

• "Firstly, the amount of planning and premeditation that went into this offence, although it is right to acknowledge that this is bound to be an invariable feature of a killing done for gain and I must avoid double counting in that regard
• "Secondly, there is the issue of Deborah's mental and physical vulnerability to which I have already referred and of which you were very well aware
• "Thirdly, there is the chilling aspect of what you did to and with her body after you had killed her."

He goes on: "You have shown absolutely no remorse and it appears that you are in complete denial as to what you did - notwithstanding what, in my judgment, amounted to overwhelming evidence against you.

"The enormity of your crime is profoundly shocking - even more so given your apparent religious devotion, as well as the fact Deborah Chong was a good friend to you and had shown you great kindness."

"Quite apart from anything else, I am driven to the conclusion that you are extremely devious," Judge Marks says of Mitchell.

Continuing to speak about the forgeries, Judge Marks says one of the signatures fakes by Mitchell belonged to a man named Virgil, "an erstwhile neighbour of yours who had died some months earlier".

"Following his death you had managed to gain access to his room and you took from that room, various papers of his, including his passport, as well as his mobile phone," the judge says, adding:

"A short time later you rang a phone company pretending to be him, giving his name and date of birth and you had the phone reactivated.

"It was his phone, rather than yours, that you used to book the hire car and it was his phone that you took with you on the trip to Devon, leaving your own at home.

"Moreover, the evidence of the handwriting expert was that his purported signature on the will had been copied from his passport, which you had removed from his room."

Image source, PA Media

Prior to sentencing, Judge Marks said: "Following your arrest on 6 July, amongst the items found by the police at your home was a will, which purported to be that of Deborah - and to leave 95% of her assets to you and the remaining 5% to your mother."

"That will was fake. It was written by you," he says.

"And it contained signatures of Deborah and two witnesses, each of which had been forged by you."

Judge Marks sentences Mitchell to life in prison with a minimum term of 34 years.

Stay with us as we bring you more of the judge's comments.

Judge Marks moves on to discuss the disposal of Ms Chong's body.

He describes the scene as a "grim discovery made all the worse by the fact that her head had been cut off". He goes on: "It was not found until a number of days later, some 10m away from the body further down the hill beneath some undergrowth.

"Because of the extent of the decomposition of the body, the pathologist who carried out the autopsy was unable to ascertain the cause of death," the judge says before continuing:

"But what was found was that she had suffered a comminuted fracture to the skull as well as multiple rib fractures."

He says that as part of her degree, Mitchell was taught anatomy and she included on her website, which advertised her services as an osteopath, that she had experience in dissecting human bodies.

"That no doubt stood you in good stead when you cut off Deborah's head, although why you chose to do that remains a mystery," the judge adds.

"But our plans went awry when you had a puncture, which had to be attended to by the AA," Judge Marks tells Mitchell in his sentencing.

He goes on: "This meant that you had rather less time down there [in Devon[ 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 place that you alighted upon was at the bottom of some steps on a public footpath by some woodland adjacent to Bennett Road in Salcombe."

Judge Marks goes on to describe a "truly telling piece of evidence" in the case.

This was "the fact that that evening - after the punctured tire had been repaired - your hired car was seen being driven by you on Bennett Road 50m away from where Deborah's body was found the following afternoon by a lady who was out walking", he says.

The judge tells Mitchell that two weeks after going to Ms Chong's house, "you hired a car for a period of only 24 hours and 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," he says, adding: "That is because it contained Deborah's body."

"You then drove to Devon where you clearly planned to dump her body."

Image source, PA Media

Judge Marks continues his sentencing at the Old Bailey.

He says he has "no doubt" that Michell killed Ms Chong while she was at her house, and that it was planned.

"Given that you went no comment throughout your police interviews and did not go into the witness box, I am driven to the conclusion that you went to her house that morning with that intention in mind," he tells Mitchell.

Judge Marks says that the suitcase Mitchell took to Ms Chong's home was, after she left, "very obviously now full and heavy".

"You also now had with you another case and I'm sure that this case was the one police later recovered from your home," he continues.

"It is clear that it belonged to Deborah Chong and it contained many documents that also belonged to her," he says, listing:

• A passport
• Driving licence
• Naturalisation papers
• Bank credit
• Other loyalty cards

Judge Marks goes on: "That large suitcase contained Deborah's body."

Ms Chong was "very aware" of Mitchell's problems with regards to her house and "was proactive and attempting to help you", Judge Marks tells the court, citing messages between the pair.

"This culminated in her offering to give you £200,000 to spend on the house," he says.

"An offer, however, which she withdrew a few days before you killed her - which I am sure is what led you to do what you did on the morning of 11 June of last year."

The judge says that on that morning, Mitchell set off early from her home address "taking with you a large suitcase, which was evident from the CCTV was either empty or had very little in it".

"You went by public transport to her address and you stayed there for over five hours," he says. "When you emerged from the property, it was clear from the CCTV evidence that you had injured your hand."

"I'm satisfied that can only have happened whilst you were inside the house and must have occurred in the course of the killing."

Judge Marks describes the days before Ms Chong's killing, saying the 67-year-old had mobility issues.

"She walked with difficulty, needing to hold on to the arms of her lodger as she did so," he says, adding the jury had seen evidence of this in CCTV captured in the days before her death.

Ms Chong "unfortunately had a history of serious mental illness, having been diagnosed some years ago with paranoid schizophrenia," Judge Marks says.

He continues: "And she had spent some months as an inpatient at a mental hospital.

"Shortly before you killed her, she had suffered a relapse and, against her will, had been put on antipsychotic medication.

"As such, and as you well knew, she was particularly vulnerable - both mentally as well as physically."

Judge Marks goes on to say that Ms Chong, like Mitchell, was "a very devout Christian".

"It is clear from the hundreds of phone messages that passed between you, over a period of several months right up to the time of death, which featured in the evidence in the trial, that you became very close," he says.

"She [Ms Chong] was 67 years of age and of Malaysian origin. She was a woman of some means. And the evidence showed that she was extremely generous."

"You lived together in a large property in north London, and the two of you decided to add an upper floor to the house - this proved to be your undoing," Judge Marks says of Mitchell and her mother.

"You and your mother paid a total of £230,000 to two builders, one of whom evidently cheated you and you were thereby exhausted of a large part of your resources," he goes on.

"But the work remained substantially unfinished and the house was left without a roof and covered in scaffolding."

Meanwhile, Judge Marks tells Mitchell, "you met the victim of this case sometime, it would appear, in 2020".

Talking about Mitchell's profession, the judge says: "You are clearly a highly intelligent woman, having attained First Class Honours, in 2006, in human sciences from King's College London and then gone on to qualify as an osteopath.

"You went to live and work in that capacity in Australia, returning to live here with your mother in 2015."

Image source, Metropolitan Police