I’ll Marry You: Sydney Entrepreneur’s Desperate Plea During Alleged French Hotel At-tack
The boyfriend of a Sydney banker accused of trying to kill him with a hot saucepan in a luxury French hotel has described the tense hours before the alleged attack and how he offered marriage in a desperate bid to escape.
David Cao, 37, allegedly struck his Australian partner, entrepreneur Callum Forbes, on the head with a kitchen pan and poured boiling water over his body during an alleged late-night attack at the Château de Perreux in central France on July 28.
The couple paid about $500 for a night in the hotel’s ‘caves room’ and planned to travel to Amsterdam for the World Gay Pride festival the following day.
Mr Forbes alleges he fell asleep shortly after 10.30pm before waking to Cao allegedly hitting him on the head with a saucepan and pouring boiling water over him.
‘I immediately ran to the door to try and get out, (but) he’d locked the door and taken the key out,’ he told the Herald.
‘I was trying to open the door so much that the door handle broke off.
‘He’d followed me down a corridor and then continued hitting me and hitting me with his saucepan.
‘He was saying, “You don’t love me, right?” I honestly thought I was going to die.’
Mr Forbes said he became so desperate during the alleged assault that he offered to marry Cao.
‘I grabbed a towel from the bathroom to try and wipe up the blood, but it did nothing,’ he said.
‘I ended up in the shower to try and wash the blood off me again… but then, when I got out of the shower, he started hitting me again.’
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Mr Forbes (left) and Mr Cao (right) were in France as part of a summer trip across Europe when the alleged attack unfolded
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The then-couple were staying at the Château de Perreux boutique hotel in central France
Guests and hotel staff reportedly heard screams coming from the room before staff found Mr Forbes alone and severely injured.
Mr Forbes said he escaped the alleged attack by locking himself in the bathroom.
What followed was a 36-hour manhunt for Cao, which led authorities to the French city of Lille, near the Belgian border, almost 500km from the Loire Valley.
Cao was subsequently charged with the attempted murder of Mr Forbes and remains in a French prison awaiting trial, which is scheduled to begin next year.
He is understood to have denied intending to kill his partner, according to French publication La Nouvelle République.
Mr Forbes said he spends much of his time attending medical appointments and has yet to return to work.
However, he said he was overwhelmed by the support from friends and family, who he credits with helping his recovery.
‘All of those (messages) were coming in while I was still in hospital. For me in hospital, when I just had Mum there, that meant the world to me,’ he said.
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According to his LinkedIn profile, Cao spent four months as head of retail value creation at ING Australia before leaving the role following his arrest in France
The Daily Mail has previously revealed that Cao previously dated high-profile radio personality and producer ‘Intern’ Pete Deppeler in 2020.
The Mail was told the relationship lasted only a few months and did not end on good terms. Deppeler declined to comment when contacted following the alleged attack on Mr Forbes.
People who knew Cao described him to the Daily Mail as ‘highly strung’.
A former colleague from the Bank of Queensland said Cao was ‘annoying’ to work with and had ‘an inflated opinion of himself’.
‘He wasn’t an executive; he liked to think he was,’ they said.
Cao often boasted about his professional achievements on LinkedIn, sharing photographs with figures including former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, Westpac chief executive Anthony Miller and chief executive Carolyn McCann.
According to his profile, Cao spent four months as head of retail value creation at ING Australia before leaving the role following his arrest in France.
He worked at Westpac between 2016 and 2020, then again from 2024 to 2026, serving as a consultant, business manager, head of strategy, executive manager and head of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
Cao also worked as chief business development officer and chief of staff to the CEO at the Bank of Queensland, a strategy manager at the Commonwealth Bank, and an analyst at the prestigious Goldman Sachs.
