Why the lack of detail

[Thewinterofdiscontent]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9783505/Jemma-Mitchell-accused-decapitating-Mee-Kuen-Chong-dumping-body-Devon-court-told.html

Horrible murder of a woman by a woman ( so fairly uncommon and therefore newsworthy ). In the paper but with no details as to suspect or motive. Why would they do this?

The headline is "Suspect, 36, is accusing of murdering...."
Suspect is a very vague word to use.

Web sleuths appear to believe it is actually a woman by sex. Not sure how they checked.

There's a photo of her and area of residence (Brondesbury Park, fairly near the suspect's home in Wembley) in the Daily Mail:
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9783505/Jemma-Mitchell-accused-decapitating-Mee-Kuen-Chong-dumping-body-Devon-court-told.html

They probably didn't have details before. There's still very little being said so there may be on going investigation (against others involved, for example) making speculation particularly iffy.

*near the victim's home, not suspects.

Well I mean it could be a woman.

Very unusual crime for a woman but could be.

The problem is this has created mistrust in the police media etc

And has the effect of reinforcing ideas about how men and women behave. Sex roles. Yay?!

I don't mean to be grisly but she must be incredibly strong and have immense upper body strength to carry that out, if indeed she did.

(Odd that the other women in the photo with the accused didn't have their faces blurred out.)

@OhHolyJesus

I don't mean to be grisly but she must be incredibly strong and have immense upper body strength to carry that out, if indeed she did.

(Odd that the other women in the photo with the accused didn't have their faces blurred out.)

She wasn’t necessarily strong. She’s been charged with murder of someone whose head has been chopped off. That doesn’t mean the victim was killed by being decapitated. More likely, the victim was killed another way and was chopped up for disposal. Even if the victim was killed by decapitation, we don’t know how, or if she is the only suspect or what role she allegedly played in the murder.

I think the photo released shows that yes this is a woman. Women can and do commit heinous crimes, albeit at a lower rate than men. But immediately assuming it’s a man every time someone is murdered just looks stupid. The victim can’t have weighed much and as others have said, you don’t need immense strength to murder someone. It depends on how you do it. Nor do you have to be male to carry out dismemberment.
Let the Phoenix Netts case be a warning about how wrong speculation about sex can be.

I wondered if it was her daughter. Trans possibility didn’t occur to me from the photo.

Without looking it up, I would assume/vaguely remember that most female killers kill relatives. There is a resemblance there, but the ethnicity aspect makes it easy to overlook, I think.

@OhHolyJesus

I don't mean to be grisly but she must be incredibly strong and have immense upper body strength to carry that out, if indeed she did.

(Odd that the other women in the photo with the accused didn't have their faces blurred out.)

I know a woman who lifted a man onto her shoulders and then proceeded to do 15 squats while wearing heels and a mini dress to win a bet during a night out. Went viral on youtube.

But I agree that women with sufficient strength to carry another human around, but they do exist, especially in the emergency services where this is a day to day requirement.

Maybe the lack of detail in the reporting is due to legal restrictions so as not to prejudice the trial? But this case does appear to involve a woman, not a transwoman, judging by the photo and the likelihood that if it was a transwoman, the DM would have slipped in details to make sure everyone knew that. Jemma, formerly known as Jeffrey, or a childhood picture as a boy.

This will probably have been a first appearance.

Court reporting is subject to restrictions and speculation is not allowed.

They can only report exactly what happened in court on that particular day.

More details will be allowed to be reported once they come out in court but not before.

Journalists must abide by the rules of court reporting, they can't relay any more than what was said in court on the day.

@GCandproud

I think the photo released shows that yes this is a woman. Women can and do commit heinous crimes, albeit at a lower rate than men. But immediately assuming it’s a man every time someone is murdered just looks stupid. The victim can’t have weighed much and as others have said, you don’t need immense strength to murder someone. It depends on how you do it. Nor do you have to be male to carry out dismemberment. Let the Phoenix Netts case be a warning about how wrong speculation about sex can be.

That's the quite natural consequence of the IPSOS ruling.

People will ask the question whenever they feel unsure. We can't rely on the wording, we need a photograph.

But it isn't our fault for asking the question. It's the patriarchal bollocks that allows self ID without a law to back it up.

Fucking ridiculous.

@Bekindorbesilent

This will probably have been a first appearance.

Court reporting is subject to restrictions and speculation is not allowed.

They can only report exactly what happened in court on that particular day.

More details will be allowed to be reported once they come out in court but not before.

Journalists must abide by the rules of court reporting, they can't relay any more than what was said in court on the day.

Which is quite right, or was.

The problem is that, by accepting Self ID as a new norm and writing it into judicial guidance, the courts have created this atmosphere where people feel the need to try to decode what is deliberately hidden.

I think this thread is a bit transphobic to be honest.

You're looking for bogeymen where they don't exist.

Who is?

The body was found decapitated, but was decapitation the cause of death?

Bodies left lying in places where there is wildlife can often end up with pieces scattered. Or a body might have been mutilated post mortem.

I thought I read somewhere that the PM was inconclusive - did I imagine that, or was the first inconclusive and a second has established it?

Last I read was inconclusive.

Most killers - male or female - use a sharp implement to kill with. If you have really sharp weapons, strength matters less.

This case is at an early stage and the media are only able to report limited details because of potential contempt of court.

There's nothing sinister about the lack of detail.

@Lemonteanomilk

This case is at an early stage and the media are only able to report limited details because of potential contempt of court.

There's nothing sinister about the lack of detail.

Exactly

I must admit that when I read about this yesterday (no photo on the article in the newspaper I read) my immediate assumption was that it would be a man who identified as female. I simply don't trust any reports I read stating that someone is woman these days.

@MsFogi

I must admit that when I read about this yesterday (no photo on the article in the newspaper I read) my immediate assumption was that it would be a man who identified as female. I simply don't trust any reports I read stating that someone is woman these days.

Which is a problem in itself, irrespective of this case. I quite understand why some posters were suspicious. How could it be otherwise in the current climate?

If the system releases misleading information repeatedly, citizens lose trust in the system.

My first thought was that this might not be the only arrest in connection with the murder and dismemberment of Mee Kuen Chong. It seems an unlikely scenario for one woman on her own.

From spotting this thread, I went at looked at the Websleuths thread, and people there have unearthed JM's entire FB history and those of associated people and say there is no sign that she is anything other than lifelong female.

There are also mentions of other crimes where women decapitated or dismembered their victims - rare but not unprecedented. There was assumption that women do not commit horrible crimes

@Thewinterofdiscontent

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9783505/Jemma-Mitchell-accused-decapitating-Mee-Kuen-Chong-dumping-body-Devon-court-told.html

Horrible murder of a woman by a woman ( so fairly uncommon and therefore newsworthy ). In the paper but with no details as to suspect or motive. Why would they do this?

I assume the article has been updated. There are 2 clear photographs of the accused- who is clearly female.