Hong Kong charges British banker with murders

Hong Kong police have charged a British man with killing two women, including one whose body was found inside a suitcase on the balcony of his upscale apartment.

Police said on Monday the 29-year-old man had asked them to investigate the case early on Saturday at the apartment in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai nightlife and red light district.

He appeared in court on Monday, and a court document listed his name as Rurik George Caton Jutting and his nationality as British. Local media reports said he worked in the banking industry, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch spokesman Paul Scanlon said on Sunday that a person with that name had worked at the bank until recently.

According to a police statement, officers rushed to the man’s apartment, where they found an unconscious woman, aged 25-30, with cuts to her neck and buttocks. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

While investigating, police found a suitcase on the balcony containing the body of a dead woman who had sustained neck injuries and had died a few days earlier, the statement said.

A court document said a woman named Sumarti Ningsih was killed October 27, which indicates she was the woman whose body was found in the suitcase. The other woman’s name was unknown.

During the brief court appearance, the two murder charges were read to Jutting, who was wearing black trousers and a black T-shirt. He was remanded into custody until November 10.

Police said they seized a knife at the apartment, located in Hong Kong’s upscale J Residence building, a 40-storey apartment tower.

Hong Kong, one of Asia’s biggest financial hubs, is home to many foreign residents who work as bankers, lawyers, accountants and teachers.

The case is the most high profile involving an expatriate in Hong Kong since the 2003 “Milkshake Murder” case, in which American expatriate housewife Nancy Kissel was convicted of bludgeoning her high-flying banker husband to death after giving him a strawberry milkshake laced with a sedative.