Two years ago we reported the shocking story of then-29 year old Hong Kong-based, Bank of America banker Rurik Jutting, who was arrested in connection with the grisly murder of two prostitutes. One of the two victims had been hidden in a suitcase on a balcony, while the other, a foreign woman of between 25 and 30, was found lying inside the apartment with wounds to her neck and buttocks. Two years later, justice has been served when overnight a local court found Jutting guilty of the “sickening” murders of two Indonesian women he tortured in his Hong Kong apartment in what the judge said was one of the most horrifying cases the Chinese-ruled territory has known.
As Bloomberg reports, Deputy High Court judge Michael Stuart-Moore sentenced the Cambridge University graduate to life in prison with no parole. During the trial, the Briton had admitted killing Sumarti Ningsih, 23, and Seneng Mujiasih, 26, but argued that he was guilty of manslaughter, not murder, on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He was suffering from mental disorders, the defense said.
The defendant was “so morally corrupted by pornography, drugs and alcohol, and a general life of debauchery with a huge salary to fund his depravity,” judge Stuart-Moore said. Jutting was considered “a high risk person” and “the repetition of the offence of murder is highly likely if he is given his liberty in the future,” he said.
Jutting, the grandson of a British policeman in Hong Kong and a local Chinese woman, had argued cocaine and alcohol disorders as well as personality disorders of sexual sadism and narcissism had impaired his ability to control his behavior. Evidence presented during the trial included video recordings Jutting made while torturing one of his victims. His cocaine use also featured, with the prosecution saying that 26 bags of the drug were found in his apartment.
The prosecution rejected this, stating Jutting was able to form judgments and exercise self-control before and after the killings, filming his torture of Ningsih on his iPhone as well hours of footage in which he discussed the murders, binging on cocaine and his graphic sexual fantasies.
The murders were even more damning because Jutting had been given every possible material advantage in life from a very privileged upbringing to a great career and immense pay cheque, the judge said.
“They are sickening in the extreme and beyond a normal person’s imagination… There are insufficient superlatives to describe what he did.“
It took the jury, made up of four women and five men, around six hours, including a lunch break, to reach its decision.
The former banker recorded himself talking about the first killing and what he should do — including giving himself up, killing himself or hiding the body then flying to the U.K., Reading said. After the second killing, he told the police that he had used up the remainder of his cocaine, the lawyer said.
Rurik Jutting, now 31, had denied murdering Sumarti Ningsih, 23, and Seneng Mujiasih, 26, in 2014 on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to alcohol and drug abuse and sexual disorders. He had pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter in a case that gripped world media due to graphic video footage seen by the jury and the brutality of the killings. The jury unanimously found Jutting guilty of murder and he was sentenced to life in prison.
His lawyers have said he will apply to serve his sentence in Britain, the former colonial power in Hong Kong, where prisoners can in some cases apply for parole after a fixed number of years.
Judge Michael Stuart-Moore agreed for an application to be filed, but said he would inform the authorities in Britain exactly what they would be dealing with and urged caution against falling for Jutting’s “superficial charm”.
As described by Reuters, Cambridge-educated Jutting, wearing a blue shirt, looked down and showed no emotion when the verdict was read out in an open courtroom, packed with international and local journalists.
In closing remarks, the judge described Jutting as the “archetypal sexual predator” who represented an extreme danger to women, especially in the sex trade. He cautioned that the possibility of a repeat crime would have been very likely.
Ningsih’s 61-year-old father, Ahmad Kaliman, said he thought the verdict was appropriate. “I want to say thank you to Hong Kong’s legal system for what they’ve done,” he told Reuters TV calmly in his village in central Java. “I hope we can get compensation to support (Ningsih’s son).”
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In a statement read out by Jutting’s lawyer, Tim Owen, Jutting said he was haunted daily by what he had done.
“The evil can never be remedied by me, nevertheless… I am so sorry. I am sorry beyond words,” Owen said, citing Jutting.
Jutting exhaled deeply as he walked out of the courtroom, flanked by three police guards.
via http://ift.tt/2fzoJcu Tyler Durden