Deepak Sandhu jailed for stabbing Xiaoqing Ke at London Airbnb after she exposed his lies

Deepak Sandhu, 24, murdered Xiaoqing Ke at an Airbnb in Earl's Court after she rejected him and uncovered his web of deception. The jury took two hours to convict him.

University dropout convicted of murdering woman at West London Airbnb in 'brutal revenge attack'

Deepak Sandhu, 24, has been found guilty of murdering Xiaoqing Ke at an Airbnb bedsit in Earl's Court, West London, after she uncovered a string of lies he had told her and demanded he repay £500 he had stolen from her handbag, uk.news.yahoo.com reports.

Ke, a 39-year-old Chinese national, was discovered face down on the bedroom floor of her room on Old Brompton Road on 10 December last year. She had sustained a fatal deep stab wound to the neck. The Old Bailey heard that Sandhu had purchased knives from Asda before travelling to London from Southampton.

The jury took just two hours on Thursday to return unanimous guilty verdicts on charges of murder and perverting the course of justice. Sandhu had denied any involvement in the killing, telling jurors he had left the flat while Ke was still alive.

A fabricated identity

Prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC described Sandhu — an Indian national whose student visa had been revoked — as a "fantasist" who had constructed a dishonest portrait of himself to Ke from the outset of their relationship.

He had falsely claimed to be a model and actor, to have travelled to the United States for an audition, and to be attending a graduation ceremony at Southampton Solent University. In reality, he had been removed from his course months earlier due to poor attendance. He had also told Ke he was robbed of £3,500 at gunpoint in America and had secured a bank job paying £6,000 a month — both fabrications.

Sandhu had entered the UK in September 2024 on a student visa, which was revoked in March 2025 after he withdrew from his studies. Ke had arrived on a standard visitor's visa and was working at a brothel in Southampton, where Sandhu was a client. The pair communicated through a translation app — she spoke Mandarin, he spoke Punjabi — and maintained contact after Ke relocated to London.

Rejection and escalation

The relationship deteriorated after Ke discovered he had stolen £500 from her. She confronted him, calling him a "liar" and instructing him not to contact her again. "Don't come see me," she told him. "I'm clear, I'm not a fool."

Sandhu's reaction was immediate. He contacted her former brothel employer to warn that she "will regret what she has done." In WhatsApp messages, he asked an associate: "Do you think I have to take my revenge on her?" At the same time, he continued to send Ke messages pleading for another chance, claiming he had her money and could arrange British citizenship through a contact.

Carberry told the jury: "Xiaoqing Ke was murdered that evening by Deepak Sandhu who had become an obsessed, manipulative young man who could not accept her rejection of him and carried out a brutal and fatal revenge attack on her before attempting to leave the country."

The night of the killing

Sandhu departed Southampton on 9 December last year carrying a knife. Doorbell camera footage at the Airbnb showed him arriving with his face partially concealed beneath a baseball cap. He left approximately 90 minutes later.

He subsequently called his sister in India and booked a flight from Birmingham to Mumbai. He was arrested on 12 December while travelling on a National Express coach from Southampton to Birmingham Airport.

In his account to the jury, Sandhu claimed that on arriving at the flat he was told to wait in a laundry room while Ke was with a client, that he heard arguing, and that he later noticed blood in the flat but did not see who was responsible. "I am not a dangerous man," he told jurors. "I am not capable of killing."

The jury dismissed that account in its entirety.

Sentencing

Following the guilty verdicts, Sandhu — of Newlands Avenue, Southampton — was remanded into custody. Sentencing was scheduled before Judge Philip Katz KC at noon on Friday.

Source: The Sun