Update: British banker charged with prostitute murders arrives in court

RURIK JUTTING, a 29-year-old investment banker, who was charged with a double murder in Hong Kong on Saturday morning, has appeared in court.

The Cambridge graduate called police at around 3am on Halloween night before one woman, a Filipino prostitute named Jesse Lorena Ruri, was found in his apartment in a pool of blood, with severe stab wounds to both her throat and buttocks. She was alive but died shortly afterwards.

Jutting is believed to have taken her to his home from the notorious ‘Suzie Wong’ red light district in his local area after a Halloween party.

The body of another woman, identified as 25-year-old Sumarti Ningsih, a Indonesian prostitute, was discovered in a suitcase on his balcony. According to reports, her body was almost decapitated, her arms and legs bound with a rope, and in a state of decomposition as it is believed it had been there for about five days.

 Nearby residents had reported an abnormal smell emanating from the banker’s balcony.

A 12-inch knife, cocaine and sex toys were found at the scene.

Police feared there could be more victims as Jutting had several indecent images and videos of about 2,000 dead women on his phone, but no more bodies have been found.

The banker left his job at prestigious Merrill Lynch bank just days before the murders, leaving a chilling, automated out-of-office message which read: ‘I am out of the office. Indefinitely. For urgent enquiries, or indeed any enquiries, please contact someone who is not an insane psychopath. For escalation please contact God, though suspect the devil will have custody [Last line only really worked if I had followed through].’ 

Hong Kong residents compared the double murder tragedy to that of the film American Psycho, where the lead character, investment banker Patrick Bateman, also murders two prostitutes.

Jutting appeared for a short hearing in court this morning where two of the charges against him were read out. He will remain in custody until November 10.