Every third day, in our #EveryThreeDays campaign, I write about a woman killed by a man. Previously this month, we have remembered Rosemary Gill, Laura Davies, Lisa Anthony together with her daughter Ava, Carol Milne, Hollie Gazzard and on the 16th of July, Tracy Baker, 41, who was killed by her husband, Kevin Baker.

Today, the 19th of July, we remember twenty-year-old Celine Dookhran, who was raped, murdered, and her body dumped in a freezer precisely four years ago today. The murderer was her uncle Mujahid Arshid, who, at the same time, was committing offences against a second woman who survived the attack but has not been named.

Arshid was found guilty at the Old Bailey of kidnapping, murder, attempted murder, rape of both women, and sexually assaulting the surviving victim when she was 13 and sentenced to four life terms with a minimum of forty years.

Arshid was a known paedophile and offender and had been on the police “radar” for some years, but they failed to protect women. The Daily Express reported this:

The sick killer spoke to an undercover police officer about having access to a 17-year-old girl he planned to drug and rape four years before the body of his niece Miss Dookhran was found stuffed in a freezer with her throat slit. Arshid asked the police officer, who was part of a sting on paedophiles: ”How would you like to f*** a 17-year-old virgin?”

He also said in a Skype chat: “I am keeping her for the right moment – I’m thinking in late November when the sun comes up very late because she will be home alone from about 7.45, we will have her until about 3.30 to 4ish.” Arshid invited the officer to drug and rape a teenage girl and then provided a web link to “ratchet tie-down straps” to “keep her down”.

He even sent the officer photographs of the same woman he later tried to kill. Dal Babu, a former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent, said: “I would have expected a warrant to have been obtained. I would have expected a search of the house to have been undertaken. I would have expected an arrest to have been made. Maybe if those actions had been taken, the outcome wouldn’t have been as horrific as it has been.”

Given the record that Arshid had, I would have expected that there would be a full enquiry via the Independent Office for Police Conduct; however, Scotland Yard, decided there would be a standard internal domestic review.

More women failed. 

Celine Dookhran

#EveryThreeDays

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Steph Richards (she/her) is a 74-year-old human rights activist, intersectional feminist, and recipient of a 2023 Inspirational Women of Portsmouth Award. Holding a Gender Recognition Certificate and "post op", she is the founder and Chair of Translucent.Org.UK, which was named LGBT Organisation of the Year at the 2022 National Diversity Awards. Steph was also shortlisted as a Positive Role Model for Gender at the 2025 National Diversity Awards. Steph’s leadership spans political, healthcare, and community advocacy. She served as the Women’s and LGBT Officer for the Portsmouth Labour Party (2021–2024), co-founded the Women’s Action Network (Portsmouth), and is a former CEO of a women’s health charity. A passionate champion for women's healthcare, she possesses extensive expertise in baby loss awareness, actively defends UK abortion rights and is a member of "Women Against the Far-Right". Calling out VAWG, Steph has researched and written about 125 women and girls killed by a man. A prominent voice in national media and debate, Steph has been featured live on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Anti Social, Good Morning Britain, Times Radio, LBC, GB News, and Channel 4 News. In 2023, she debated trans human rights alongside Harvard biologist Dr. Carole Hooven at a prominent US university event.

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