A 20-year-old woman from London was raped and murdered by her “obsessed” uncle before her body was padlocked in a deep freezer, a court heard earlier this week.
Mujahid Arshid, 33, planned to abduct and kill his niece Celine Dookhran, 20, and another woman aged 21, for weeks after becoming enraged they had boyfriends, the Old Bailey heard.
Opening his trial at the Old Bailey, prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC said it was a “simply horrific” case.
He said Arshid kidnapped the women from London on Wednesday 19 July 2017 and took them to a house in the boot of a pickup truck, leaving one of them dead in a freezer at an unused house.
He recruited labourer Vincent Tappu to abduct the pair, wearing balaclavas and gloves, jurors were told.
Bound, gagged and covered in a dust sheet, he allegedly bundled them into the boot of his car and took them to a house he was renovating.
While there, Arshid raped both women and attacked them with a lock knife, jurors heard.
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One of the women managed to escape death and raise the alarm by persuading him they could be together, the court heard.
Officers went to the six-bedroom house in Wimbledon, south west London, and discovered the body of Celine Dookhran in a locked freezer in a utility room.
Arshid is on trial accused of the kidnap, rape and murder of his niece, Ms Dookhran, and the attempted murder of the other woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.
Jurors were told that Arshid had become “sexually fixated” with the women, and had resolved to “have them” at all costs.
Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC said as he opened the case: “Aware that they had boyfriends, aware that they were beyond his clutches, he must have resolved that if he could not have them, no one else would.”
