An “obsessed” builder raped and cut the throats of two young women, leaving one of them dead in a freezer, a court has heard.

Mujahid Arshid, 33, became “sexually fixated” on his prey and had planned for weeks to abduct them, kill them, and dump their bodies in the deep freeze, the Old Bailey heard.

Jurors were told that he recruited labourer Vincent Tappu to abduct the victims.

On July 18, wearing balaclavas and gloves, they bound, gagged, and covered the victims in a dust sheet, allegedly putting them in the boot of his car and taking them to a house he was renovating.

The court heard that, while there, Arshid raped and attacked both women with a lock knife.

One of the women managed to escape and raise the alarm by persuading him they could be together, jurors were told.

Police went to the six-bedroom house in Coombe Lane West and found the body of Celine Dookhran, 20, in a locked freezer in a utility room.

Two days previous, Arshid had installed a chest-high deep freezer in the utility room, the court heard.

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC told jurors 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 boyfriends and 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 13 and was “beside himself with rage” that she was going out with someone else, the court heard.

Mr Aylett said: “The evidence in this case shows that, for a period of about three weeks before July 19 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.”

When the surviving victim convinced Arshid they could have a relationship, they left the house together and his brother brought her to hospital, the court heard.

Officers found the house based on a description from the victim.

Meanwhile, Arshid fled to the Kent coast and was arrested at a hotel in Folkestone, the court heard.

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.

Mr Aylett said: “The defendant had been hatching his murderous plan for several weeks before he actually brought it into effect.

“The prosecution suggest that he must have realised that two young women whom he adored were both slipping away from him.

“If he could not have them, he would make sure that nobody else could either.”

The trial continues.