British banker Rurik Jutting apologised to the families of his victims Tuesday after he was found guilty on two counts of murder over the killings of two Indonesian women in his upscale Hong Kong apartment.
Cambridge graduate Jutting, 31, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Sumarti Ningsih and Seneng Mujiasih on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but a jury at Hong Kong’s High Court returned unanimous guilty verdicts after a 10-day trial.
The former Bank of America Merrill Lynch securities trader held Ningsih captive for three days, torturing her before slashing her throat, the court had heard.
In a letter read out to the court by defense counsel Tim Owen after the verdicts, Jutting said: “My actions regarding the deaths of Ningsih and Mujiasih, my actions preceding their deaths, were horrific even by the standard of homicide trials.”
Jutting said he was “haunted” by what he had done and was “aware of the acute pain I’ve caused to their loved ones”.
“The evil that I’ve inflicted cannot be remedied by me,” the letter said.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry beyond words.”
In a letter read out to the court by defense counsel Tim Owen Tuesday after the verdicts, Jutting said he was “haunted” by what he had done.
“The evil that I’ve inflicted cannot be remedied by me,” the letter said.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry beyond words.”
But the judge Michael Stuart-Moore dismissed the apology.
“It’s the first mention of saying sorry about what he had done and I don’t accept it,” he told the court.
He described Jutting as an “archetypal sexual predator” who presented an extreme danger to women.