Banker charged with murder of two women in Hong Kong

A 29-year-old British banker appeared in a Hong Kong court today charged with two counts of murder after police found the bodies of two women in his apartment, including one inside a suitcase on a balcony.

A court document said Rurik George Caton Jutting worked for Bank of America Corp. The US bank said that it had, until recently, an employee with the same name, but it declined to give further details.

Looking stony-faced and unshaven and wearing a black T-shirt and dark-rimmed glasses, Jutting told the court he understood both charges. The brief hearing was adjourned until November 10th, without Jutting entering a plea.

Jutting was arrested in the early hours of Saturday at his apartment in Wan Chai, a central city district known for its vibrant night life.

The charge sheet identified the woman in the suitcase as Sumarti Ningsih and said she had been killed on October 27th. The second woman, who was not identified, was killed on November 1st, the document said. It did not say how they were killed.

Local media described the two victims as prostitutes and said both had neck injuries, adding one was nearly decapitated. One of the women was Indonesian, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported.

The grisly murders have shocked Hong Kong, a city with a low homicide rate.

One of the victims was found in the suitcase, the other lying inside the apartment with wounds to her neck and buttocks, police have said.

Jutting had called police and asked them to investigate the case, police have also said.

Martyn Richmond, Jutting’s duty lawyer, said his client had been denied contact with the British consulate and access to a solicitor of his choice prior to being interviewed.

Jutting had done 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.

Britain’s Foreign Office in London said on Saturday a British national had been arrested in Hong Kong, without specifying the nature of any suspected crime.

A Linkedin account under Jutting’s name said he had worked in structured equity finance and trading at Bank of America in Hong Kong since July 2013. Before that, he had worked in the same department but in London.

The profile also said Jutting had worked in structured capital markets at Barclays between June 2008 and July 2010 and had studied at Cambridge University.

Agencies