Latvian gets 30 years for murder of mum on her walk to work
A LATVIAN who came to Britain to escape police in his homeland was jailed for 30 years yesterday for murdering a mother on her way to work.
Vadims Ruskuls pounced on Pardeep Kaur as she walked to the Sheraton Skyline Hotel near Heathrow because she wanted to save on the £1.50 bus fare.
The killer, who lived rough under a bridge in West London, followed the housekeeper, sexually assaulted her, then dragged her corpse to wasteland.
Her half-naked body was found a week later stuffed in a sleeping bag and covered by branches near the M4 and a pedestrian walkway. Ruskuls, 25, was only traced by chance after he was suspected of breaking into an elderly couple’s home and police matched his records to DNA found underneath his victim’s fingernails as she desperately tried to fight him off.
His victim, 30, worked six days a week, sending her earnings home to support her six-yearold daughter and grandparents in India.
Jailing him for life with a minimum of 30 years, Judge Richard Marks QC, said the killer had shown no remorse nor given any explanation for the murder.
Ruskuls refused to cooperate with his legal team or give evidence at his Old Bailey trial, which lasted just four days.
The judge said the motive for the attack was sexual adding: ‘This was a truly shocking and wicked offence of the utmost gravity. Anyone who could do what you did must be regarded as extremely dangerous.
‘What a dreadful way for Pardeep Kaur, a decent, hardworking young woman, to die.’
Detective Inspector Jamie Stevenson, from Scotland Yard’s homicide and major crime command, said: ‘This has been a truly shocking and horrendous case and Ruskuls has proved himself to be a violent and dangerous rapist and murderer.’
Yesterday Mrs Kaur’s husband Rachpal Singh said: ‘All our dreams are shattered. I have lost my life partner. I am lost without her.
‘It has been six months since Pardeep was murdered and I have not forgotten her for even six seconds and always think what Pardeep must have gone through on that dark morning when she was killed. I still don’t know what happened to lovely Pardeep and why Vadims Ruskuls killed her. The circumstances of her death will always haunt me because Vadims Ruskuls will not give an explanation. ‘Our daughter will never get her mum back. I have lost my wife because of him and I will not get my wife back.’
Ruskuls came to Britain in 2014 under freedom of movement laws because Latvia is a member of the EU. After a brief marriage to a mother of three broke down in August 2015, he began sleeping rough around West London. He was seen on CCTV on October 17 last year following Mrs Kaur on her way to a walkway under the M4. About 25 minutes later, Ruskuls was seen on camera dragging his victim’s body into nearby woodland. A day after the murder he was stopped in a street and officers questioned him about trying to break into an elderly couple’s home in the early hours.
His ex-neighbours in Latvia said he fled his remote village close to the border with Belarus and Russia after repeatedly stealing cars. He also had convictions for burglary and criminal damage in Latvia.
One local said: ‘Ruskuls had no job and no money. Even after being caught stealing vehicles he simply sat in court grinning at his victims. He had no remorse.’
Ruskuls will be deported at the end of his sentence.
‘Death will always haunt me’