A builder kidnapped and raped two young women before slashing their throats and dumping one of their bodies in a freezer, a court has heard.

Mujahid Arshid planned for weeks to abduct the two "attractive" women, kill them and dump their bodies in the deep freeze, the Old Bailey heard on Wednesday (January 17)

He recruited labourer Vincent Tappu to abduct the pair, wearing balaclavas and gloves, jurors were told.

They were bound, gagged and bundled into the back of a car on July 18 last year before being taken to a property near Kingston Arshid was renovating.

The 33-year-old then raped both women and attacked them with a lock knife, jurors were told.

The court heard how one of the women managed to escape and raise the alarm by persuading him they could be together.

Police went to the six-bedroom house the following day (July 19) where they found the body of 20-year-old Celine Dookhran in a locked freezer in a utility room.

Arshid stands accused of the kidnap, rape and murder of Ms Dookhran and the attempted murder of the other woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Celine Dookhran, 20, was found dead in a freezer

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC told jurors Arshid had been "hatching his murderous plan" for several weeks and the case was "simply horrific".

He said the defendant had become "sexually fixated" with the women, and resolved "if he cannot have them, no-one could".

At the time, both women had partners while Ms Dookhran had moved into Arshid's home after falling out with her parents over her love life.

The defendant had allegedly abused the other woman when she was a teenager and was "beside himself with rage" she was going out with someone else, the court heard.

'Bizarre as it is terrible'

Mr Aylett said: "The evidence in this case shows that, for a period of about three weeks last year, the first defendant was planning to kidnap both young women.

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

"To that end, he considered either putting them in acid or else concealing them in a deep freezer."

Two days before the alleged attack, Arshid installed a chest-high deep freezer in the utility room at the property, Mr Aylett said.

Arshid and Tappu are standing trial at the Old Bailey

Armed with a lock knife, Arshid allegedly raped each woman in turn in an upstairs bedroom.

Mr Aylett said: "The defendant took Celine back upstairs. He cut her throat in the bathroom, 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 airways and lost blood."

Later, he took the other woman upstairs again and cut her throat but she survived and then duped him into believing they could still be together before making her escape, the court heard.

Charges denied

The court head how Arshid had earmarked was a three-storey house in Coombe Lane West, between Kingston and Wimbledon.

The owner wanted to convert it into two flats and approached Arshid to do the work in June last year as he was awaiting planning consent.

Mr Aylett suggested Arshid brought the deep freezer to the house in advance to stop the bodies from smelling as they decomposed.

After the alleged attack, he is said to have fled to the Kent coast after the alleged attack and was arrested at a hotel in Folkestone.

Arshid, of no fixed address, and Tappu, 28, of Spencer Road, Acton, deny the charges against them.

Arshid is accused of murder, attempted murder, rape of both women and the earlier sexual assault and assault by penetration of the surviving woman.

He is jointly charged with Tappu of both women's kidnap and false imprisonment, and possession of a firearm with intent.

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