Hong Kong police yesterday charged a former British banker in the deaths of two women, including an Indonesian woman whose body was found inside a suitcase on the balcony of the suspect’s upscale apartment, authorities said.
The killings have shocked Hong Kong, which has a reputation for a low rate of violent crime.
Rurik George Caton Jutting appeared briefly at a preliminary hearing, at which he spoke only to confirm that he understood the two murder charges against him.
Photo: Bloomberg
Police said over the weekend that the 29-year-old had called them to his apartment in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai nightlife district at 3:42am on Saturday.
Court documents listed his nationality as British and his occupation as a “Banker of Bank of America.”
Jutting worked for the bank until recently, Bank of America Merrill Lynch spokesman Paul Scanlon said on Sunday.
According to a police statement, officers rushed to the man’s apartment, where they found an unconscious woman, aged 25 to 30, with cuts to her neck and buttocks. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
While investigating, police found a suitcase on the balcony containing the body of a woman who had sustained neck injuries and had died a few days earlier, police said.
INDONESIAN VICTIMS
A charge sheet said a woman named Sumarti Ningsih was killed on Monday last week, which suggests that she was the woman whose body was found in the suitcase. The other woman’s name was unknown.
Indonesian consulate spokeswoman Sam Aryadi confirmed that Sumarti was Indonesian. Eni Lestari, an adviser with the Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers in Hong Kong, said that the second woman was also Indonesian.
“We are now trying to locate those victims’ families and we’re trying to let the families and relatives know about this very sad situation,” said Aryadi, who added that records showed Sumarti entered Hong Kong on a tourist visa on Oct. 4 and was given permission to stay until today.
During the court appearance, the two murder charges were read to Jutting, who was wearing black pants and a black T-shirt with “New York” and “Champions” written on it.
When asked whether he understood the charges, he said: “I do,” in a calm voice.
He was remanded into custody until Monday next week.
Police said they seized a knife at the apartment, in the upscale J Residence building, a 40-story tower.
Jutting is a University of Cambridge graduate who worked in structured equity finance and trading for Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong since July last year and before that in London for about three years, according to a listing on LinkedIn. Prior to that he worked for Barclays PLC.
According to people who were at Cambridge at the same time, Jutting attended Peterhouse, the oldest college, and was president of the Cambridge University History society.
Prior to Cambridge he went to Winchester College, one of Britain’s most famous and oldest private schools.
Martyn Richmond, Jutting’s duty lawyer, said his client had been denied contact with the British consulate and access to a lawyer of his choice prior to being interviewed.
Jutting had been given up to seven police interviews over many hours, Richmond added.
Police declined to comment on Richmond’s accusations.
The British consulate did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘MILKSHAKE MURDER’
The territory has not seen such a high-profile case involving a foreign resident since the so-called “milkshake murder” case in 2003, in which US expatriate housewife Nancy Kissel was convicted of bludgeoning her high-flying banker husband to death after giving him a strawberry milkshake laced with a sedative.
Kissel is serving a life sentence for killing her husband, Robert Kissel, who worked at Merrill Lynch, which was later bought by Bank of America.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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