Banker admits to killing ‘his prey’

Naked and bloodstained, the British banker Rurik Jutting went onto his 31st-floor balcony immediately after killing his second victim, waving his knife and shouting at pedestrians, the High Court in Hong Kong was told.

Jutting admitted his actions in an interview with the police, which was played to the court. He is on trial over the double murder of Sumarti Ningsih, 23, and Seneng Mujiasih, 26, both part-time sex workers from Indonesia.

High on huge quantities of cocaine, Jutting, a Cambridge university graduate, told police that he collapsed ‘‘physically exhausted’’ on the balcony after cutting the throat of Mujiasih.

He admitted she was ‘‘still alive and still moving’’ when he went outside.

‘‘When I went back in she wasn’t moving. I didn’t specifically check whether she was dead or alive,’’ he said. Also on the balcony was a suitcase with Ningsih’s body inside.

Jutting, who used to work at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has admitted killing both women but has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and denies murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Tim Owen, QC, for the defence, will present his case on Monday, when the trial resumes. His key task appears to lie in convincing the nine-member jury that Jutting, aged 29 at the time of the killings, suffers a psychopathic personality disorder.

Jutting told police he had considered jumping from his balcony and at one point climbed to a neighbour’s balcony, where police later discovered three bags of cocaine, a broken bottle of vodka and some energy drink, key parts of his diet in the weeks preceding the killings. He then went back inside the flat and called police.

The 999 call suggests a high state of drug-fuelled paranoia - Jutting believed ‘‘special forces’’ were surrounding him and he demanded to speak to the leader of the operation.

In subsequent police interviews, he calmly led them through the self-incriminating still images and video footage he shot of his actions on his iPhone. ‘‘She is currently tied up by me . . . she is being restrained here against her will. She absolutely did not consent,’’ he told officers when asked about one of the photos taken during the three days he brutally tortured Ningsih.

Jutting was ‘‘in a state of extreme sexual aggression’’ during that time, he told police. Speaking of Mujiasih, he said: ‘‘I don’t know why I chose her. I’ve never met her before. She was simply prey . . . I was hunting for prey. She was very brave.‘‘