The shocking murder of Celine Dookrahn (19) has sparked a wave of indignation in the UK, and also an outpour of emotional tributes for the “amazingly talented and loving” teenager that never failed to express her faith and love for life in her social media.
On July 19, 2017, Celine’s body was found stuffed inside a freezer inside an unoccupied and luxurious house in Kingston-Upon-Thames, an area of south west London. Her throat had been cut, she was gagged and bound and had been raped. She had been taken from her house hours earlier, while she was showering, along with a 21 year old friend of hers who was also attacked but managed to escape and alert police. She’s currently hospitalized in serious condition, and hasn’t been named for legal reasons.
Two men were arrested. Mujahid Arshid (33) was charged with the kidnapping, rape and murder of Celine and the kidnapping, rape and attempted murder of the second woman. Vincent Tappu (28) was charged with kidnapping both women. A 29 year old woman was also arrested on suspicion of assisting in the kidnapping.
According to prosecutor Binita Roscoe, Celine’s murder is an alleged “honour killing”, because she was an indian muslim involved in a relationship with an arab muslim that some of her family members didn’t approve. It is unclear at this point which family members are those and what’s Arshid’s relationship with her, but her immediate family released a statement in which they asked for privacy and said: “We have sincere belief and full confidence that the perpetrators will face the full force of the law”.
UPDATE
Mujahid Arshid was found guilty of the murder of Celine, who was his niece, and the attempted murder of the second woman, who cannot be named. He will spend at least 40 years in jail.
In the trial it was said by the prosecution that Arshid had been obsessed for a while with both Celine and her friend, and he’d become enraged when he learned they had boyfriends. So this wasn’t exactly an “honour killing”. Celine’s family expressed their agreement with the sentence by yelling “Yes!” in court.
The attack on the second victim was so brutal she needed extensive surgery. She survived but her mother stressed during the sentencing that it will take her all her life to recover from the ordeal.
Arshid became enraged when learning of his sentence and blamed the surviving victim for the crime, saying she was behind the attacks. He told the jury that convicted him “he would prove that bitch wrong.”
It was proven his obsession with the surviving victim dated at least four years, thanks to a message exchange shown in court in which he’d told an undercover cop that “girls like (her) deserve rape,” and describing his fantasies of raping her. She was a teenager at the time. At the time police went to get him but he claimed it hadn’t been him using the computer and the case was dropped.
The surviving victim (sorry to keep calling her that) was smart enough to use his obsession with her when he had her captive and convinced him she would run away with him, while at the time she was texting her mother to ask for help.
The other man arrested, Vincent Tappu, was cleared of the kidnapping charges.
Rex's place 