Builder 'raped and murdered niece and locked her body in freezer because he was jealous of her Muslim boyfriend'

A builder kidnapped, raped and murdered his teenage niece before dumping her body in a locked freezer because he was jealous of her relationship with her Muslim boyfriend, a court heard.

Mujahid Arshid, 33, allegedly tied up 19-year-old Celine Dookhran and another young woman, bundling them both into the boot of his car and taking them to a £1.5 million house in Kingston that he was renovating.

He is accused of raping both women at the abandoned house before slitting their throats.

The body of Celine, a Barclays bank clerk and aspiring make-up artist, was later found in a padlocked deep freezer at the house, but the other woman, who was badly wounded, managed to convince Arshid not to kill her and raised the alarm, it is alleged.

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC said shortly before she died, Celine had fallen out with her parents who disapproved of her Muslim boyfriend Omar, who is from Libya, believing she should be dating a Pakistani man.

She went to live with her uncle, Arshid, but he developed a “sexual fixation” with Celine, it is alleged.

Mr Aylett said Arshid, realising that Celine was in a sexual relationship with her boyfriend and was “beyond his clutches”, hatched a plan to murder her and either dump her body in the freezer or dissolve it in acid.

“He must have resolved that if he could not have (her), no one else would,” said the prosecutor.

Telling jurors to “steel themselves” for the “simply horrific” evidence in the case, Mr Aylett said: “For a period of three weeks before July 19 last year, the first defendant was planning to kidnap both young women.

“As bizarre as it is terrible, he intended to rape them both before murdering them and disposing of their bodies.”

It is said Arshid enlisted a builder colleague, Vincent Tappu, 28, to help abduct the two women on July 19, the day after a family meeting where Celine was “pressured” to end her relationship with her boyfriend.

“Although they agreed to stop seeing each other, no one could have been sure that they meant to keep their word,” said Mr Aylett.

“The following morning, taking advantage of the uncertainty surrounding Celine’s position, the defendant put his plan into action.”

He said Arshid and Tappu, wearing gloves and balaclavas, stuffed socks into the two women’s mouths and secured them with tape, then tied their hands and feet before wrapping them in a builder’s dust sheet.

It is alleged Arshid grabbed a handful of Celine’s underwear before he and Tappu bundled the two women into the boot of the car.

Arshid alone is then accused of driving the women to the house he was renovating, tying them to pipes in the utility room before he raped both separately in an upstairs bedroom.

He then took Celine to the bathroom where he allegedly cut her throat with a lock knife, then put her body in a deep freezer which he secured with a padlock.

Arshid slit the other woman’s throat, it is alleged, but she managed to convince him to not kill her and eventually got hold of a phone to raise the alarm.

Mr Aylett said police found the house and made the grisly discovery of Celine’s body. When Arshid was arrested, he had the key to the padlock used to secure the freezer door, it is said.

The prosecutor added Arshid had told the second woman she was a “nasty horrible evil person” during her ordeal.

“It may be that, after you have heard all the evidence, you will come to agree with the first defendant’s assessment of his own character,” he told the jury.

“The mere fact that a man behaves in a quite extraordinary way does not, of itself, mean that he must be mad. Instead he may simply be utterly wicked.”

Arshid, of no fixed address, denies murder, attempted murder, two counts of rape, and two charges of sexual assault.

He and Tappu, from Acton, both deny two counts of kidnapping, two counts of conspiracy to false imprison, and possession of a firearm with intent.

The trial continues.