Uncle convicted of rape, murder of Indian-origin niece in UK

A 33-year-old British-Pakistani man was today found guilty of kidnapping, raping and killing his 20-year-old Indian-origin niece by a UK court.
Mujahid Arshid killed Celine Dookhran in a jealous rage by slitting her throat and then dumped her body into a freezer, the Old Bailey court here was told during the trial.
The builder from London was also found guilty of the attempted murder of a second 21-year-old Indian-origin woman, who was a friend of the victim and managed to escape with serious injuries during the attack last year.
Arshid was also convicted of sexual assault charges against the unnamed second woman between 2008 and 2010.

"He molested Celine's body while she was dead and then he molested me thinking I was dead. He's such a psycho," the woman said in her testimony from behind a curtain.
"I started saying things he wanted to hear 'I love you, we can run away together, we can be happy together, we can have a family'," she told the jury to explain how she was able to get away.

In July last year, a balaclava-clad Arshid grabbed the women and took them to a house he was helping to renovate towards the south of London. They were bound, gagged and raped and had their throats slit, the court was told.

In what was described as an "honour killing", prosecutors said that Arshid took advantage of the fact that Dookhrans step-father disapproved of her Libyan Muslim boyfriend, and told her she should be with a Muslim from Pakistan.
Arshid, said to be "sexually fixated" with both women, took advantage of the disputes by kidnapping them and making it appear like they had run away together.
While Dookhran, a Barclays bank worker, was found dead by police, the second woman managed to raise the alarm and was rescued by Arshid's brother, who saw her in the back of his truck and took her to a hospital where she went on to have two operations as she recovered from knife wounds.

From her hospital bed, she told police officers where they would find Dookhran's body in a freezer.
"He brought Celine down in a bag, picked her up and put her into the chest freezer," she told the court.
Arshid had claimed in court that it was the second woman who had killed Dookhran and shouted "I will prove that lying b*tch wrong" from the dock as the guilty verdict was read out in court today.
The judge, Justice Anthony Edis, is set to pass his sentencing order against Arshid later today.
Meanwhile, co-defendant Vincent Tappu an labourer employed by the builder was acquitted of all charges against him, which included the kidnap of both women, false imprisonment and possession of a firearm with intent.

The 28-year-old was in tears as he expressed his thanks to the jury over the verdict.