Hong Kong | Banker’s trial jury sees chilling video of torture

File photo taken through a tinted glass, Rurik Jutting, a British banker, sitting in a prison bus arrives at a court in Hong Kong

A Hong Kong jury watched chilling video yesterday of a British banker torturing an Indonesian woman and then talking for hours about how he repeatedly raped her and then killed her without feeling guilt or emotion.
The video was shown on the second day of Rurik Jutting’s trial for the murders of Sumarti Ningsih, 23, and Seneng Mujiasih, 26, whose bodies were found in his upscale apartment near the city’s red-light district in 2014. The case shocked people in the Asian financial hub, which has a reputation for being safe but also significant inequality. It also highlighted the decadent lifestyles of some members of the former British colony’s expatriate elite.
Jurors were played about 20 minutes of video in which Jutting apparently tortures Sumarti. The media and public could not view it but heard the audio.
At one point he can be heard saying: “If you scream I will punish you. Understand?” That is followed by the sound of smacking and slapping, and later the sound of a woman whimpering. Jutting then tells her not to cry.
Later, both jurors and the public gallery were shown hours of iPhone video in which Jutting, wearing no clothes, delivers an extended rambling monologue to the camera.
“My name is Rurik Jutting. About five minutes ago I just killed, murdered, this woman here,” he says into the camera, moving it to show her body in his bathroom shower.
He says on camera he held the woman captive and raped her repeatedly and he discusses how he felt no guilt or emotion after killing Sumarti. “I’ve always had dark fantasies” involving rape, torture, murder, he says.
Jutting, who worked for Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in structured equity finance and trading, said he had earned more than $1 million over the previous two years but had spent most of it on drugs and prostitutes. He watched the court proceedings from the glass-screened dock, showing no expression.
Sumarti had been in Hong Kong earlier as a foreign maid but had returned on a tourist visa. Seneng was officially on a foreign domestic worker visa but was working in a bar when she met Jutting.
Both women went to his apartment after Jutting offered them money for sex. Prosecutors said he killed both women by slitting their throats.
Jutting, 31, has pleaded not guilty to murder, with prosecutors rejecting his attempt to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
At one point in the video, he holds up to the camera a small plastic bag apparently containing cocaine and a rolled up Hong Kong $10 bill. He is seen snorting the drug several times in the videos, which were filmed over six days.
The last clip shown was apparently filmed after he killed Seneng.
“I imagine this may be my last video, this just happened,” he says in one, and then pointing the camera down to the floor, although it its too dark to see anything.
“I have killed two. The first one I tortured. There will be no redemption for me, but they are dancing with angels,” he said.
The trial is scheduled to continue today and run for three weeks. Kelvin Chan, Hong Kong, AP