Pardeep Kaur killer convicted

MONDAY, 17th October 2016 started just like any other working Monday for Pardeep Kaur. By the end of the day, she was dead. Now homeless Latvian Vadims Ruskuls, 25, has been convicted of murdering her.

Pardeep began her last day, as usual, with a walk to her job as a housekeeper at the Sheraton Skyline Hotel in Harlington. She and her husband both worked long hours and sent money home to support their six year old daughter who was living back in India with her grandparents. It took Pardeep’s husband until 8pm to tell the police that she had not come back from work.

                    Pardeep Kaur

Local police were able to narrow down Pardeep’s last movements thanks to mobile phone data and CCTV. The Homicide and Major Crime Command were called in on the Thursday, and just two days later Pardeep’s body was found – under the Harlington High Street flyover, loosely covered by a sleeping back and some branches.

Officers then looked back over the CCTV footage of Pardeep’s last movements and were able to identify a man acting suspiciously. They circulated the footage to local colleagues, and one officer – PC Lewis – remembered picking the man up on the night of the murder. Ruskuls was later found, and DNA evidence convinced police he was the guilty party – the murderer.

PC Lewis gave evidence at the trial, which concluded with Vadims Ruskuls being found guilty at the Old Bailey on 11th April. The following day, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 30 years. The Judge commented on Ruskuls’s failure to show any remorse for the killing and ordered that he be deported at the end of his sentence.

Ms Kaur’s widower gave the Court a witness statement which said that her was particularly haunted by the fact that Ruskuls had given no explanation of why he had killed Ms Kaur. PC Lewis said that his police training had helped him identify the suspect, saying, “I am just glad I was able to play a small part in bringing a dangerous offender to justice, and to do my job effectively.” He hoped that the verdict and sentence would help Ms Kaur’s family to grieve and to come to terms with what had happened.

[Adverts]