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Tragic: Lauren Patterson's body was left smouldering in a remote desert
A British school teacher found dead in Qatar had been sexually assaulted and stabbed before her burnt remains were left smouldering in a remote desert, a court heard.

Prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for one of the men accused of murdering 24-year-old Lauren Patterson branding it "heinous and shocking" to the country's "conservative society."

Lauren's mother, Alison Patterson from West Malling, Kent, and other family members, were in court in Doha to hear how her attacker took Lauren to a home he used for sexual trysts with women, "conquered her body", and killed her by stabbing her twice.

Then with his accomplice, he put Lauren's body in the boot of his car and drove out of the city of Doha to Al-Kharrara, where they burned her remains.

The court was told a knife was found inside Lauren's rib cage.

The two Qatari men, who have not been named, were arrested after being identified by a friend of Lauren as being the last people to see her alive.

At an earlier hearing last month the friend testified how she and Lauren and the two men, who they were "casually acquainted with", left a nightclub at La Cigale Hotel in Doha around 3.30am on October 12 last year.

She said Lauren, who had just returned from attending her grandmother's funeral in England, was not drunk and was "aware of her surroundings".
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Family: Lauren has recently returned from the UK, where she attended her grandmother's funeral
She said the men dropped her home with the promise they would also drop off Lauren shortly afterwards at her house.

But she was never seen alive again.

A forensic doctor went to the crime scene on a farm in Al-Kharrara, near Wakrah and found a pit containing the remains of a smouldering human body.

He said a knife was stuck in "what appeared to be" the rib cage of the body.

Due to the extensive damage to the body from the fire, the doctor said he could not ascertain whether the cause of death was by stabbing, whether there was alcohol in the body, or if any sexual contact took place.

A detailed forensic investigation also uncovered a strand of Lauren's hair in the first defendant's car, and matching sand granules were found on the remains, the tyres of his car and shoes at his home.

The prosecutor called for the first defendant to get the death penalty for intentionally killing Patterson.
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He said because the defendant is Muslim, the Islamic Shari'a principal of qasas (retribution) should be exacted in the form of the death penalty.

He said Lauren, who worked at a primary school in Doha, had been sexually assaulted but forensic tests could not prove this because the remains were too badly burned.

The prosecutor said that even if the sex was consensual, the defendant and Lauren were not married, so the act was still a crime in Islam.

He also asked the court to punish the first defendant for having sex outside of marriage and for alcohol consumption.

Both defendants are also charged with burning Lauren's body and 'damaging and erasing' evidence.

A verdict in the case is expected next month.