A devout Christian decapitated by a friend who wanted to inherit her estate kept a Bible verse in her jacket pocket, a court heard.

Mee Kuen Chong, known as Deborah, was found dead in the woods in Salcombe, Devon, on June 27 last year – 15 days after Jemma Mitchell, 38, allegedly attacked her in her north-west London home.

The Old Bailey on Monday heard pathologist Dr Deborah Cook describe examining the 67-year-old’s headless body.

She said she found small pieces of paper torn from a notepad with a quote from the Bible on them in the Marks and Spencer jacket Ms Chong was wearing.

The pensioner also kept a plastic wallet, an Oyster card and business cards for a GP, dentist and evangelical church.

Ms Chong’s was discovered wearing a dress and strappy sandals with the handle of a purple handbag.

Inside the bag was a camera, a tote bag and a length of orange rope which the prosecution alleges matches some found at Mitchell’s home.

Dr Cook told jurors ‘It was apparent that the head and at least the first two bones that form the spine were absent.

‘The larynx at the front of the neck was also missing.’

Last week, the court was told how Ms Chong was a vulnerable person who suffered from mental illness.

For example, doctors said she had a ‘perceived relationship’ with the-then Prince Charles, believing she could communicate with him via YouTube.

Ms Chong’s mental health issues date bate to 2015, when she was noted in GP records as having schizo-affective disorder and acute stress.

Medical records say she suffered an episode of mania with psychotic symptoms in 2017.

But by the next year her condition had stabilised and she was discharged by community mental health team.

In May 2021, records indicate she had paranoid schizophrenia.

Prosecutors say Mitchell killed Ms Chong in order to fake her will, steal her money and finish the repairs to her dilapidated home in Willesden, north-west London.

The defendant, an expert in body dissection, denies murder.

The trial continues.

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