THE BRITISH BANKER accused of murdering two Indonesian women in his upscale Hong Kong apartment is a narcissistic sexual sadist who had been abused at school, a court heard today.
Rurik Jutting, a 31-year-old Cambridge graduate, has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The prosecution rejected the lesser plea.
Jutting is accused of murdering Sumarti Ningsih (23) and Seneng Mujiasih (26) two years ago, slashing their throats after saying he would pay them for sex.
He tortured Ningsih inside his apartment for three days before killing her and stuffing her body in a suitcase found on his balcony.
As the trial entered its second week, the defence said Jutting suffered from narcissistic personality disorder and sexual sadism disorder, as well as heavy use of cocaine and alcohol.
Forensic psychiatrist Richard Latham, called as a defence witness, said Jutting had told him he was abused at renowned English private school Winchester College.
A report from Latham read out in court said a boy had forced Jutting to perform oral sex on him at school.
“He described it in a way that he was a victim of sexual assault,” Latham said, adding that it had been an important event in Jutting’s life.
Jutting’s father had also tried to commit suicide when he was 16, the court heard.
Despite appearing as though he was functioning well, Jutting had encountered problems in relationships and work, said Latham.
People with narcissistic personality disorder found it difficult to empathise with others and sought constant praise, he added.
“When that breaks down the consequence is dramatic,” Latham told the court.
Jutting had became increasingly interested in torture, rape and slavery as things that made him sexually excited, Latham said.
His disorders mixed with the consumption of cocaine and alcohol had affected his behaviour, said the psychiatrist.
“At the time of the killings his ability to control his behaviour was substantially impaired,” the psychiatrist said.
When asked by judge Michael Stuart-Moore whether voluntary intoxication constituted a defence, Latham said the drive to take drugs and alcohol was “extremely difficult to resist”.
‘Complete blackout’
Latham said Jutting had a “very high opinion of himself” and likened his life to the film “The Truman Show”.
Under cross-examination, Latham said Jutting thought “his life was so significant and special” that thousands of people would be watching it.
In court breaks Jutting gestured animatedly to defence lawyers as he spoke with them from the dock.
The court heard how Jutting had been unhappy at work in London and by 2012 was drinking heavily, consuming 84 units of alcohol a week – the equivalent of 14 bottles of wine.
He sought therapy at that time and had previously seen a psychiatrist at school, when he was worried about his parents’ marital problems.
Arriving in Hong Kong to work for Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in 2013, he continued drinking and spent his spare time watching television and playing computer games, according to a report by Latham read out to the court by defence counsel Tim Owen.
Jutting had no social life and the point of drinking was to “achieve complete blackout”, Latham’s report said.
In 2014 he was bingeing on takeaway food and had amassed debts.
Ningsih and Mujiasih were found dead in Jutting’s flat in the early hours of 1 November, 2014.
In police interviews shown to the court last week, Jutting told officers he had been taking 10 grams of cocaine a day in the weeks before the killings.
Owen said Jutting had been introduced to cocaine by escorts in London in 2010 and that in 2011 he had gone on three-day binges, taking five grams of cocaine at a time.
The defence continues tomorrow.
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