An Indian migrant has been convicted of murdering a woman at an Airbnb bedsit in west London after she rejected him.
Deepak Sandhu, a 24-year-old Indian national, was described by Prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC as a “fantasist” who carried out “a brutal and fatal revenge attack” after Xiaoqing Ke, 39, saw through his deceptions.
A jury at the Old Bailey needed just two hours of deliberation on Thursday to find the former AI student guilty of both murder and perverting the course of justice by trying to flee the country.
Ms Ke’s body was discovered on the bedroom floor of the Old Brompton Road property in Earl’s Court on December 10 last year, bearing a deep knife wound to the neck.
Sandhu arrived in the UK from India in September 2024 on a student visa, which was cancelled six months later after he dropped out of his course at Southampton Solent University.
Ms Ke, a Chinese national who entered Britain on a visitor’s visa in early 2025, first encountered Sandhu as a customer at a brothel in Southampton where she had begun working.
After she relocated to London, the pair stayed in touch until Ms Ke realised he had stolen £500 from her handbag.
Sandhu then constructed an elaborate series of falsehoods to cover his tracks, the court heard.
He invented a modelling audition in America, fabricated a graduation ceremony, and falsely claimed a banking job paying £6,000 a month.
He also told Ms Ke he lived with his sister in Southampton, though she was actually in India.
Ms Ke confronted Sandhu directly, calling him a “liar” and demanding repayment.
She told him: “Don’t come see me. I’m clear, I’m not a fool.”
Rather than relenting, Sandhu bombarded her with controlling and abusive messages.
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In a WhatsApp exchange with an associate, he asked: “Do you think I have to take my revenge on her?”
He also cautioned her former employer that she would “regret what she has done”.
On December 9, Sandhu purchased knives from a supermarket and travelled from Southampton to Ms Ke’s bedsit.
Doorbell camera footage showed him arriving with his face concealed beneath a baseball cap; he departed roughly 90 minutes later.
Following the killing, he contacted his sister in India and booked a flight from Birmingham to Mumbai.
Officers apprehended him two days later aboard a National Express coach heading to Birmingham Airport.
Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Jolley of Scotland Yard said the victim’s family had endured “an unimaginably painful time” and that his team’s thoughts remained with them.
He said: “Our team uncovered vital evidence which showed Sandhu had become fixated on Xiaoqing and had subjected her to a tirade of controlling and abusive messages before ultimately deciding to end her life.”
DCI Jolley added: “Xiaoqing should never have had to endure what happened to her either in the months before her death or in the final moments of her life.”
He stressed that combating violence against women and girls remained a central priority for the Metropolitan Police, vowing that officers would pursue all perpetrators of such offences.
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