'Evil' builder, 33, 'tasered his 20-year-old makeup artist niece then raped her and slit her throat before hiding her in a freezer he installed at a client's £1.5m home - knowing it would be empty for weeks'
An 'utterly wicked and obsessed' builder raped his niece before slitting her throat and hiding her body in a padlocked freezer, a court heard today.
Mujahid Arshid, 33, and his employee Vincent Tappu, 28, allegedly kidnapped Celine Dookhran, 20, and another victim on July 19 last year.
The pair stuffed socks into the women's mouths and bound their hands and feet before Ashid bundled them in the boot of a car wrapped in dust sheets.
He then took them to a £1.5 million six-bedroom south west London house which he was renovating and 'knew would be empty', the Old Bailey heard.
Days earlier, Arshid installed a chest-high deep freezer into the utility room of the property and had googled 'what temperature does the human body freeze,' the court heard.
The women were taken inside and tied to the pipes before Arshid, armed with a knife, raped them in turn in an upstairs bedroom playing out 'a number of his sexual fantasies.'
The second woman had her throat cut but duped him into believing they could be together in a desperate bid for survival.
She escaped and raised the alarm from hospital which led to the discovery of Miss Dookhran's body.
Opening the prosecution case, Crispin Aylett QC warned jurors they would have to 'steel themselves' for the 'simply horrific' evidence in the case.
He said Arshid became 'obsessed' with Barclay's bank worker Miss Dookhran but knew that she was having a sexual relationship with her boyfriend, a Libyan Muslim.
He said the defendant had become 'sexually fixated' with the women, but resolved Miss Dookhran was 'beyond his clutches' and 'if he could not have them no-one could'.
Mujahid Arshid, 33, and Vincent Tappu, 28, are on trial over the death of Celine Dookhran
The body of make-up artist Celine Dookhran was discovered in a £1.5million property just miles from her home in South West London
Vincent Tappu and Mujahid Arshid are depicted here in a court sketch at from the Old Bailey today
Mujahid Arshid, 33, was said to have bound and gagged kidnapped two victims and had sex with them both in a £1.5 million house he was working on. Pictured, police at the scene
Arshid plotted to kidnap both women and hatched his murderous plan about three weeks earlier, the prosecutor said.
The prosecutor told the court: 'Thereafter, and it is as bizarre as it is terrible, he intended to rape them before murdering them and disposing of their bodies.
'He considered either putting them in acid, in order that their bodies might dissolve, or else concealing them in a deep freezer.'
The night before the murder, Arshid allegedly armed himself with an axe at a family showdown to discuss Celine's relationship.
The court heard her family did not agree with Celine, an Indian Muslim, having a sexual relationship with her boyfriend Omar, a Libyan Muslim.
After the meeting, Tappu who had been working for Arshid on a part-time basis, was drafted in as an accomplice.
They made an arrangement the day before and early on July 19 Tappu drove to a side street near where Miss Dookhran lived, it was said.
The two men, wearing balaclavas and gloves, burst into her room and Ashrid scooped up clothes and phones to give the 'entirely false' impression Miss Dookhran had run away.
He also grabbed large quantities of underwear, 'no doubt consistent with his sexual fascination' with her, the court was told.
Prosecutor Crispin Aylett, QC, warned the jury that they would have to prepare themselves to deal with the terrible facts of the case surrounding Ms Dookhran's murder
They then bundled the girls into a car but Tappu played no further part, jurors were told.
Describing what happened when they arrived at the scene of the crime, Mr Aylett said the boot was opened and Arshid told them: 'Time to co-operate.'
Jurors were told that the 21-year-old could 'hear screams that had gone on for at least 10 minutes' as she was tied up.
Mr Aylett told the court Celine was ordered to climb inside the freezer having 'already been raped'.
He added: 'It would seem that Arshid must have intended that Celine should freeze to death.'
The other girl, he said, convinced Arshid to untie her and let Celine get out after telling him 'what they thought he wanted to hear.'
She is said to have pleaded with him that they would 'never say a word' to anyone.
But Arshid 'snapped back into action' and continued with his 'murderous plan.'
He took Celine back upstairs, Mr Aylett said, and the girl heard screams, several thuds and the sound of tape being unrolled.
'And then there was silence,' he said.
A court drawing from an earlier hearing of Mujahid Arshid (left) and Vincent Tappu (right)
Arshid allegedly drove the women to the house, and tied them to the pipes in the utility room while he was armed with a lock knife, before raping them in turn
Mr Aylett added: 'In the bathroom of that house, he cut Celine's throat, most likely with the lock knife.
'With her mouth still stuffed with a sock, Celine died from the combined effect of the restriction of her airwaves and the blood that she lost.'
The court heard Arshid then took the second woman who is in her 20s, upstairs and cut her throat and told her 'she would be dead within ten minutes'.
But she managed to convince him to let her go after telling him: ‘We know you're hurting, you can leave us two right now, walk out of that door.’
Arshid then left the property with the badly wounded woman who was later taken to hospital by his brother, the court heard.
Eventually she got hold of a phone to ring her mother, even though she did not know where she was.
Meanwhile, Arshid had fled to the Kent coast and was arrested at a hotel in Folkestone still possessing the padlock key, the court heard.
Mr Aylett said: 'A police officer arrived with a crowbar. The lock was broken and inside was the body of Celine Dookhran. She had obviously been dead for some considerable time.'
Arshid, of no fixed address, denies murder, attempted murder, two counts of kidnap, two counts of rape, two counts of conspiracy to falsely imprison another, possessing a firearm with intent - a Taser.
He also denies one count of sexual assault, and one count of assault by penetration, involving the second woman between November 2008 and November 2010.
Tappu, from Acton in west London, denies two counts of kidnap, two counts of conspiracy to falsely imprison another, and one count of possessing a firearm with intent.
No comments: