The man accused of the rape and murder of a young woman has alleged she was killed by a possessive rival who went “crazy” after catching them having sex.
Builder Mujahid Arshid, 33, claimed to a jury he had consensual sex with both women but left them to it and phoned his mother when they began rowing over him on July 19 last year.
He returned to find his niece Celine Dookhran, 20, dead in the bathroom of the house he was renovating and the other woman with “blood on her hands”, he said.
Arshid is on trial for the kidnap, rape and murder of Ms Dookhran, and the attempted murder of the surviving woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.
Ms Dookhran’s body was found in a freezer at the house after the second alleged victim was taken to hospital with cuts to her wrists and neck, the Old Bailey has heard.
Giving evidence, Arshid told jurors how he had sex with the unidentified woman twice before July last year, including one time in his car.
He said he had invited both women to spend the day with him on learning Ms Dookhran planned to run away following a family dispute.
Arshid said he took them in his pick-up truck to the six-bedroom renovation project in Kingston, south-west London.
He told jurors he left the unidentified woman in a bedroom with a vibrator and returned to find her “undressed from the waist down and using it”.
He said: “I then go and sit on the bed with her and we start making out, kissing and fondling. And we had sex.”
Afterwards, Arshid said Ms Dookhran, who was downstairs in the kitchen, told him she was tired and went upstairs.
He said he carried on with his work before coming across his niece sobbing that her “whole family hate her”.
He told jurors he tried to reassure her, saying: “I was comforting the girl, innit.”
He went on: “You know what? For the first time in a while I made her feel safe. I know in the grand scheme of things how things turned out.
“She felt safe and comfortable, and then she kissed me. It was a very emotional situation. We act first, and think later.”
Judith Khan QC, defending, asked: “What happened once you have slept together?”
He said: “As we were getting dressed, (the other woman) burst in and she’s going crazy. I cannot tell you how angry she was.
“(She) is incredibly possessive and she obviously heard what was going on upstairs, and she came in screaming at me. She punched me in the chest. She shouted at me. Celine started crying.
“I don’t deal very well with women shouting both sides at me. I tried to calm the situation down. She were having none of it (sic).”
Arshid said he “left them to it” and called his mother before returning after about 20 minutes.
Describing the scene, he said: “As I got to the top of the stairs I looked across. I saw (the woman) standing there, knife in hand, blood on her hands.
“I went running in. I see Celine in the bath. There’s so much blood everywhere, I cannot see what’s what. It was obvious she was gone, so I closed her eyes.”
Arshid allegedly screamed at the other woman and demanded to know what she had done, adding: “It was so weird, my mind is all over the place. I said ‘get out of my sight’.”
The defendant was later arrested at a hotel in Folkestone in Kent, the court has heard.
A handout photo of a hotel room which was shown to the jury during Mujahid Arshid’s court case (Metropolitan Police/PA)
Arshid, formerly of south-west London, has denied all the charges against him.
He is on trial with labourer Vincent Tappu, 28, from Acton, west London, who is accused of helping him abduct the woman. He also denies wrongdoing.