British banker Rurik Jutting was jailed for life on Tuesday for the “sickening” murders of two Indonesian women he tortured in his Hong Kong apartment.
Former Bank of America employee the murders of Sumarti Ningsih, 23, and Seneng Mujiasih, 26, in 2014 on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to alcohol and drug abuse and sexual disorders. Instead, he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
In a 10-day trial, the jury heard how Jutting became obsessed with slavery, rape and torture, playing out those fantasies with his first victim.
Jutting tortured her for three days and recorded parts of her torment on his iPhone – footage the jury watched.
It took the jury, made up of four women and five men, around six hours to unanimously find Jutting guilty of murder and he was sentenced to life in prison.
Judge Stuart-Moore said he believed Jutting posed an “immense danger… if he is ever again given his liberty beyond the prison gates. On each offence, I pass a concurrent life term… You’ll go to prison for life,”
“They are sickening in the extreme and beyond a normal person’s imagination… There are insufficient superlatives to describe what he did.” The judge added.
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.
Ms Ningsih’s mother Suratmi welcomed the sentence for the Cambridge graduate.
“I feel that the right decision has been made, he tortured my child,” she said. “I lost my daughter and I will never be able to meet her again, the pain and agony of that will never go away. He is an evil man.”
His lawyers have said he will apply to serve his sentence in Britain.