Hong Kong court told how banker tortured one of his victims for days
Print Edition
BRITISH banker Rurik Jutting tortured one of his victims for three days, a Hong Kong court heard yesterday at the opening of a trial into the killings of two Indonesian women at his city apartment.
Jutting, 31, had earlier pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He instead pleaded guilty to manslaughter, a plea rejected by the prosecution.
The court heard that Jutting filmed both women on his iPhone and jurors were warned by judge Michael Stuart-Moore that the footage was “very shocking indeed.”
“The defendant even recorded on his iPhone part of the torture that he inflicted on his first victim,” Stuart-Moore said.
Sumarti Ningsih and Seneng Mujiasih, both in their 20s, were found dead in Jutting’s flat in the early hours of November 1, 2014, after he called police.
Prosecutor John Reading said Ningsih was tortured for three days at Jutting’s apartment in Wan Chai — where expensive homes lie close to a red-light district. Jutting then killed her in the shower with a serrated knife, Reading said.
He told jurors that according to the facts agreed on by both sides, Sumarti went home with Jutting after he offered her “a large sum of money” on October 25, 2014.
Jutting subjected her to “increasingly cruel acts of violence using his belt, sex toys, a pair of pliers and his fists,” Reading said. He said the pair had previously met when he paid to have sex with her. But on that occasion, because he had been so rough, she offered to give back half the money if she could leave early, which he agreed to.
“After torturing her for three days, he took her into the bathroom, had her kneel in front of the toilet bowl with her hands tied behind her back, made her lick the toilet bowl and then he cut her throat with a serrated-edged knife,” he said.
Jutting continued to saw through her neck when she didn’t immediately die, he said.
Jutting used his phone to film himself talking about the killing, how he enjoyed dominating Sumarti and how he watched pornographic videos involving extreme violence. He also said he “definitely could not have done that without cocaine.”
In some shots, Sumarti’s body can be seen on the floor of the shower. At one point he wrapped it up and put it in a suitcase that he left on the balcony.
Late on October 31, 2014, Jutting brought Seneng back to his apartment. She was working at a bar when Jutting offered her money for sex, Reading said. After they undressed, Seneng spotted a gag made of some rope that he had left next to the sofa and started to shout, Reading said.
Jutting grabbed her, took a knife he had hidden under a cushion, held it to her throat and told her he would cut her throat if she didn’t stop.
“She continued to struggle and shout, and he cut her throat,” he told the jurors.
He made more video recordings, including one that showed Seneng’s body, and told police he used up the rest of his cocaine. He apparently started hallucinating and, believing that the police were coming to get him, called the emergency number. Officers who arrived found the body and arrested him.
Reading said traces of cocaine were detected in plastic bags found in the apartment.
Jutting, a former securities trader at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, faces a three-week jury trial and life in prison if convicted on the murder charges.
Outside the court, a group of protesters from Indonesian migrant worker organizations called for a “speedy and fair trial” and compensation for the victims’ families.
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