THE victims of "psycho" knifeman Mohamed Zahran have told how they feared for their lives as they were held captive and forced into degrading sex acts.

Zahran, 38, forced the two women to have sex on the living room floor of a house in a County Durham while he pretended to record them on his mobile phone.

The ordeal happened in front of a dumbstruck toddler, and her mother recalled last night: "He said I had to take off my clothes and have sex with my friend."

Choking back tears as she relived the ordeal, the pretty brunette said: "I had no clothing on at all. My friend removed her clothing, she was distressed and terrified.

"We thought he was going to kill us. He had the knife in his hand and my daughter was still running around the room.

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"He told me I had to lay on my friend. We were both lying down and he told us to start kissing, to moan and the make sexual movements. He was holding the knife in one hand and his phone in the other.

"We changed positions so that she was lying on top of me. He then began touching himself and touched me. We were crying and screaming.

"He was looking towards my friend, he was looking as though he was going to rape her and she was begging him not to.

"He told her it was her turn now and his turn to have sex with her. I told him not to touch her, he could do whatever he wanted with me.

She said that Zahran then suddenly began stabbing her friend.

The mother said: "She was full of blood. For a moment I saw him stabbing her, she was on her knees, she couldn't get to her feet.

"He came over to me and my friend ran to the window, she was banging on it and screaming. He came over to me and stabbed me seven times.

"I managed to push him hard and he fell over onto the floor. I told my friend to run. My friend was naked and bleeding, she ran into the street and was banging on the doors of neighbours to get help."

She told how suffers flashbacks and nightmares, and is afraid to take a shower or look in the mirror because of the scars.

"I live in fear of the day he will be released from prison, and that he will try to find me and finish what he started. I truly believe he tried to kill me."

The other victim, 29, told how she feared she was going to be raped and murdered after she was grabbed by the throat and thrown to the floor.

She was about to leave the house when Zahran felled her, sat on top of her and pointed the knife at her throat before jabbing her with it.

She said: "I thought that's it, he's going to kill me.

"It thought that's it, seriously, it was the moment when I was looking around for anything I could grab, anything that could help me.

"There was nothing there close enough and I realised I couldn't protect myself and I felt this is really it. That was the moment that broke me.

"That was the moment that broke me down, and I was likely to be able to do anything he asked for, just to get away.

"I said sorry. I said sorry a million times but I never felt sorry for three seconds. I thought maybe I will convince him to let us go."

She added: "I didn't feel a single stab wound. I didn't feel the knife. The first moment I realised I'd been stabbed was when I saw the blood."

Recalling being forced onto the floor, she said: "My mind was only on one thing - to get out of this house and phone the police.

"He told me he had a gun, that he had bought a gun, and that there was going to be a bullet for the head of anyone I cared about."

She added that she now suffers panic attacks, sees her husband as a "man who someone has ripped the heart out of" and said: "This has destroyed me as a person.

"I will never forget the look of satisfaction on his face as he enjoyed inflicting fear and pain on me during the incident.

"There is no doubt in my mind that this man intended to kill me, and I will never accept his intention was just to cause me serious harm."