Failed Student JAILED For 28 Years Over Earls Court Sex Worker Murder

A 24-year-old failed university student who embarked on a campaign of controlling abuse before inflicting 38 knife wounds on a sex worker in a brutal revenge attack has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 28 years.

Deepak Sandhu, 24, of Newlands Avenue, Southampton, was sentenced at the Old Bailey by Judge Philip Katz KC on Friday 16 October 2026 after a jury deliberated for just two hours to convict him of murder and perverting the course of justice.

Sandhu, an Indian national born on 28 December 2001 whose student visa had been revoked following his failure on an artificial intelligence course at Southampton Solent University, launched a sustained and premeditated knife attack against 39-year-old mother-of-two Xiaoqing Ke inside a rented Airbnb flat on Old Brompton Road in Earl’s Court, West London, on 9 December 2025.  

The court heard that the pair had met in 2025 while Ms Ke, a Chinese national, was working in a brothel in Southampton.

Prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC detailed how the couple formed a relationship of sorts during which Sandhu, an obsessed and manipulative young man, fabricated an elaborate false identity claiming he had a successful career as a model and actor.

The relationship deteriorated rapidly after Ms Ke discovered that Sandhu was lying to her and had stolen £500 from her handbag. Ms Ke terminated the relationship in August 2025 and demanded the return of her stolen money.

The court heard that Sandhu responded with a campaign of emotional manipulation, financial control and harassment, stealing her mobile telephone, confiscating her passport on one occasion and pestering her with increasingly desperate calls and text messages.  

When Ms Ke refused to reconcile and insisted she wanted nothing further to do with him, Sandhu grew bitter and fixated on revenge.

Digital forensic evidence recovered by Metropolitan Police homicide detectives revealed that Sandhu told one of Ms Ke's colleagues that he would take revenge and predicted in a text message that he would become evil.

Sandhu eventually persuaded Ms Ke to agree to a meeting by falsely promising to repay the £500 and claiming he could assist her with citizenship applications.

Days prior to the meeting, Sandhu purchased a set of knives from an Asda supermarket in Southampton. On 9 December 2025, Sandhu travelled by coach from Southampton to West London armed with the newly purchased weapons.

Recorded Ring video doorbell footage captured Sandhu arriving at the Old Brompton Road property dressed in a baseball cap and face coverings in an attempt to disguise his identity before Ms Ke let him into the flat.  

Once inside the property, Sandhu carried out what prosecutors described as a calculated, brutal and fatal revenge attack, stabbing Ms Ke 38 times.

The prosecution told the court that Ms Ke would have been at least fleetingly aware that she was about to die as Sandhu inflicted far more injuries than were necessary to cause death.

Sandhu left the flat 90 minutes later, leaving Ms Ke dead on the bedroom floor. The alarm was raised the following morning, 10 December 2025, when neighbours noticed bloodstains on the front door and in the shared communal area.

Emergency services attended and police officers discovered Ms Ke's body.

Forensic investigators recovered blood matching Sandhu’s DNA profile from the scene, while Sandhu was subsequently seen with visible knife wounds to his arm.  

Immediately after leaving the crime scene, Sandhu initiated swift efforts to evade justice and flee the United Kingdom.

He called his sister in India and falsely claimed he had witnessed another man murder Ms Ke. Sandhu took Ms Ke’s mobile phones from the address, destroyed his own SIM card, returned to Southampton and purchased a one-way flight ticket to Mumbai from Birmingham Airport.

On 12 December 2025, Metropolitan Police officers intercepted Sandhu on board a National Express coach travelling from Southampton to Birmingham Airport, arresting and cautioning him before he could board his flight.  

Mitigating for the defence, Tim Forte KC acknowledged that while Sandhu’s claims regarding a modelling and acting career were transparently ludicrous, the defence could not get away from the 38 stab wounds inflicted upon the victim.

Sentencing Sandhu to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 28 years, Judge Philip Katz KC highlighted the significant degree of planning, premeditation and controlling behaviour that preceded the killing.

The court noted that Ms Ke’s teenage children in China were unable to travel to London for the trial, but her family watched the court proceedings via video link.

In a family impact statement, Ms Ke’s sister described the unbearable heartache and profound injustice felt by her family, expressing hope that the 28-year minimum term would provide some measure of solace as they arrange for Ms Ke’s ashes to be returned to China.