KIDNAP SCENE

Life term as survivor calls him ‘evil’

A “PSYCHO” builder was jailed for life after kidnapping, raping and slitting the throat of his niece before putting her body in a freezer.

Mujahid Arshid had snatched bank worker Celine Dookhran, 20, along with his niece’s pal, who lived despite two attempts to cut her throat.

Yet twisted Arshid, 33, tried to blame the survivor, who cannot be identified, for the murder of Celine.

After being convicted at the Old Bailey yesterday, Arshid ranted in the dock: “She’s killed all of them. She’s lied to you.”

The woman wept in court but appealed for others to remain calm.

Arshid was convicted of murder, attempted murder, rape and kidnap.

A jury also found him guilty of sexually assaulting the surviving victim when she was 13.

He kidnapped her and Celine from Mitcham, South-west London, last July, wrapping the pair in tarpaulin and forcing them into the back of his pick-up truck. He drove to a £1.5million house he was renovating in nearby Kingston, where he raped them and then took a knife to their throats.

Celine’s body was found stuffed in the freezer Arshid, of Mitcham, put in the house days before. As he was jailed for a minimum of 40 years, the surviving victim tearfully branded him “evil” in a statement.

The woman, who had told police he was “a psycho”, said Celine was “like a sister” and they had been “inseparable”.

She went on: “Words cannot describe how much I miss her. On the 19th July 2017, that sick man took an even more depraved step in affecting my life... hearing the helpless screams and seeing the fear in Celine’s eyes that day. The terrifying visions and muffling sounds will never go away. Hearing Celine being killed stops me from closing my eyes and going to sleep like a normal person.”

A second defendant, Vincent Tappu, 28, of Acton, West London, was cleared of playing any part in the kidnap.