Raped A-level girl's last hours on CCTV (From Watford Observer)

Raped A-level girl's last hours on CCTV

1:33pm Wednesday 1st June 2005

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CCTV footage of A-level student Jeshma Raithatha on the day she was raped and murdered has been released.

The aspiring singer and actress was filmed buying a top and a candle hours before she fell victim to a horrific attack as she took a shortcut through dense bushes near her family home.

Police now believe the 17-year-old was grabbed as she walked along a secluded footpath, pulled into a wooded den used by drinkers and raped.

Her killer then stabbed her three times in the heart.

Further forensic tests found the popular west London teenager had not been held for six days before her death, but was murdered on the day she went missing.

Detectives now think she was killed where her partially clothed body was found about 20 yards from a footpath behind Sudbury Tower in Greenford Road, Sudbury Hill.

She lay undiscovered in the undergrowth for eight days.

Officers are still looking for a man who lived less than 500 yards from both Jeshma's family and the wasteland where she died. He left his home in Dimmock Drive after the murder.

CCTV cameras recorded Jeshma's last two hours after she left Claremont High School in Kenton on May 16.

Dressed casually in jeans, a t-shirt and a cardigan, she had been studying at the college for her exams.

At about 1pm she boarded a 204 bus from Preston Road to Wembley High Road. In Wembley she bought a top at Primark and a candle at Pound City, before catching a 92 bus at 2.39pm.

Twenty minutes later she got off near Sudbury Hill Tube station, heading towards her home in the Wood End estate.

It is likely that she walked past the David Lloyd Leisure Centre and through the wooded area behind it. The area is still being searched for clues and police have not ruled out the option of staging a reconstruction of Jeshma's last journey.

Detective Superintendent Sue Hill, who leads 60 officers in the hunt for the killer, earlier described the murder of the "pretty and bubbly teenager" was "despicable and harrowing".

Jeshma's parents, Shuresh and Manjula, said in a statement: "Jeshma, you were born like a sparkle in our eyes.

"You lived through the smiles on our cheeks and will remain in our hearts."

Claremont School told the Harrow Times it would hold a special assembly in memory of Jeshma. It will take place after this week's half-term break to help her schoolfriends come to terms with her death.

• Anyone with information that could help the inquiry can call 020 8358 0300.

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