A high-flying investment banker and an eligible bachelor. At 31, Rurik Jutting looked to have a bright future ahead of him.
But now he could end up spending the rest of his life in prison if he is found guilty of murdering Ms Sumarti Ningsih, 23, and Ms Seneng Mujiasih, 26, both from Indonesia.
Over four days last week, grisly details of the alleged murders emerged in Hong Kong's High Court, with Jutting denying two counts of murder. He entered a plea on the lesser charge of manslaughter based on grounds of a personality disorder.
The alleged murders took place two years ago in Jutting's rented apartment near a red light district in Wan Chai, where Jutting was reportedly a regular.
In a series of video clips, including interviews by the police and videos Jutting filmed of himself at the crime scene, the court heard that Ms Sumarti was tortured for three days before she was killed.
Jutting, who confessed to deriving pleasure from the killing, later picked up Ms Seneng from a bar in Wan Chai and brought her to his apartment where he cut her throat.
Jutting was educated in Britain's prestigious Winchester College and Cambridge University. He was described by friends as incredibly bright and hard-working, reported Britain's The Sun tabloid. It was also reported that he had a fiancee who cheated on him and he later dated model and actress Sonya Dyer, but split up before he moved to Hong Kong in 2013.
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Confessions of Rurik Jutting
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Investigators found a total of 43 videos on Rurik Jutting's mobile phone after he was arrested, some of which were his confessions of how he had allegedly tortured Ms Sumarti Ningsih, 23 and Ms Semeng Mujiasih, 26. Below is an excerpt of the court transcripts compiled and published by the South China Morning Post of Jutting's confessions.
"My name is Rurik Jutting. About five minutes ago, I just killed, murdered, this woman here," Jutting said into the camera of his mobile phone. The frame then shifted to show Ms Sumarti, 23, lying face down on the floor of his bathroom.
"It's Monday night. I've held her captive since early Saturday. I've raped her repeatedly, tortured her, tortured her badly.
"At the time, it felt really good. Yeah, it's good. I reduced her to a sex object. Then I realised, hang on, this is actually not that difficult or bad. This is illegal, of course. When you step back, you realise it's horrible, of course.
"My hand is still shaking, and I feel sick. I don't feel guilty, but clearly I feel something. I can't describe what it means.
"The narcissistic ramblings of Rurik Jutting, Rurik George Caton Jutting. Former vice-president of structured equity, finance and trading at Merrill Lynch, newly unemployed and part-time rapist, murderer.
"I've basically been lying on the sofa for the whole week. The things that I get up for are coke, alcohol and food."
Jutting was working as a securities trader with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, earning £350,000 (S$594,000) a year before the killings took place between Oct 25 and Nov 1 in 2014.
The court heard that Jutting was addicted to cocaine and alcohol. But it was only three weeks before the crime took place that he began to react differently to cocaine. He said he had derived pleasure and satisfaction from "being rough and essentially hurting another person" during his first sexual encounter with Ms Sumarti, whom he had met on the website Craigslist.
A few days before he met Ms Sumarti again on Oct 25, Jutting quit his job at the bank.
Ms Sumarti was initially reluctant to go home with him after she found him violent in their first sex encounter. But Jutting offered up to HK$10,000 (S$1,800) to spend the night with her, an amount Ms Sumarti could not resist.
For three days, Ms Sumarti was tortured with a belt, sex toys and a pair of pliers. She was also forced to lick the toilet bowl, before Jutting cut her throat with a "serrated-edged knife", the prosecution said.
Ms Sumarti was still struggling to stay alive, revealed Jutting in a video he had recorded of himself at the scene.
"After I beat her so badly... told her that I was going to rape her repeatedly and kill her... even after that she had wanted to live," said Jutting in one of the recordings shown to the jurors, reported the South China Morning Post.
Jutting allegedly dragged Ms Sumarti into the shower and continued to saw her neck until she was dead, wrapped her body in plastic bags and placed it in a suitcase on the balcony.
The court heard that Jutting felt a sense of enjoyment he had never felt before and decided to look for his second victim, but not before going to a sex shop and a hardware store to buy nails, a hammer and sandpaper.
On Oct 31, Jutting picked up Ms Seneng, a domestic helper who was moonlighting in a bar at Wan Chai. When they arrived at his apartment, Ms Seneng was terrified to see a gag made from rope and a condom.
Ms Seneng shouted, but before anyone could hear her, Jutting slit her throat with a knife. He then called the police who arrived and found Ms Seneng barely alive. She was pronounced dead shortly after.
The defence did not dispute physical evidence presented by prosecution last week, but the dispute could lie in psychiatric and psychological evidence provided by the defence.
The 15-day trial continues tomorrow with the defence opening its case.
