HONG KONG (AP) – A British banker was using cocaine when he killed two Indonesian women by slitting their throats and then used his phone to film himself talking about it, a Hong Kong prosecutor said as a trial for the 2014 killings opened Monday.
The banker, Rurik Jutting, entered a plea of not guilty to two murder charges that were read out at the High Court, with prosecutors rejecting his attempt to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Jutting is charged with the murders of Sumarti Ningsih, 23 and Seneng Mujiasih, 26 whose bodies were found in his upscale apartment near the Asian financial center’s Wan Chai red-light district, in a case highlighting the Asian financial hub’s inequality and privileged lifestyle of its wealthy expat elite.
Jutting is a Cambridge University graduate who worked for Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in structured equity finance and trading. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
The case shocked the former British colony, which has a reputation for being safe, while also highlighting the city’s extreme inequality.