A young woman told how a “psycho” builder slit her throat and told her she had “10 minutes to live” after killing her friend, a court heard.

Mujahid Arshid, 33, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of murdering 20-year-old Celine Dookhran and attempting to murder another young woman, who managed to escape. It is alleged he raped both women.

He is jointly charged with Vincent Tappu, 28, of both women's kidnap and false imprisonment, and possession of a firearm with intent.

Both men deny the charges.

Speaking from her hospital bed with bandages on her arms, the survivor relived her ordeal in a taped interview played at the trial.

Ms Dookhran's relatives sobbed in court as the woman told police: “I'm not going to lie, I was scared for my life.

“I thought if we get out alive, he cannot get away with this.”

She described how Ms Dookhran screamed as she was tasered by Arshid's accomplice before they were bundled into the back of his pick-up truck in July last year and how the two women made a survivor's pact when they reached a house between Kingston and Wimbledon which Arshid was renovating.

The pair tried to reason with Arshid, the witness said: “We just started talking to him, saying 'put the knife down, let's talk. We understand your pain.' We tried to relate to him.

“I know for a fact if we had a little more time, she would be alive as well.

“We said 'leave us, you can walk out of that door. You will be free and we will not say a word to anyone.'

The woman said: “He taped me up into a chair, my legs were tied, my hands were tied. He took (Ms Dookhran) up and that was the last I saw her. I could hear her screaming.

“I just literally sat there thinking 'what can I do, what can I do'.”

Afterwards, Arshid ordered her to get into the freezer but the woman wedged her body and claimed she could not fit in, she said.

The defendant allegedly told her Ms Dookhran was “sleeping” but the woman said she saw her body wrapped up in the bathroom “out of the corner of the eye”.

She said: “I said 'no no no we need to talk'. I started fighting, I grabbed him, kneed him down below. He did not flinch at all. I grabbed his face. I grabbed the knife.

“He started to slit me everywhere. I got my neck slit, my wrists.

“He said 'now you've got 10 minutes to live and your body will shut down'. I was trying to play dead.”

She added: “He's such a psycho.”

The woman said she “started saying things he wanted to hear” in order to survive.

Later, the victim managed to grab a mobile phone and call for help while Arshid was outside and then convinced him to leave the house, the court heard.

She was rescued by Arshid's brother who saw her in the back of the pick-up and took her straight to hospital.

On the defendant's motivation, the woman said: “Knowing he cannot have us, I thought if he finished us two, then no-one else can have us.

“It doesn't make much sense but in his head it made sense.”

From her description, police found the house where the pair had been held, broke open a freezer in the utility room with a crowbar and found Ms Dookhran's body.

Arshid was arrested at a Holiday Inn in Folkestone and his laptops were examined.

The court heard Arshid allegedly trawled the internet for strong pain killers, "human cremation" "butchering the human carcass" and "acid bath murderer".

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC told jurors a Google search led to a Wikipedia page about John George Haigh, who was hanged in 1949 for murdering six people and disposing of their remains in different ways, including in baths filled with acid.

He said the defendant was "inspired" by Haigh to set up a new Google email address ineedanacidbath@space.com.

Arshid also allegedly viewed a YouTube video entitled "Woman cut throat".

Arshid, of no fixed abode, and his alleged accomplice labourer Vincent Tappu, 28, from Acton deny all the charges against them.

The trial continues.