Hong Kong court orders pyschiatric reports on UK banker
PUBLISHED ONNovember 10, 2014 3:24 AM
HONG KONG - A British banker charged with the grisly murders of two women had his case adjourned by a Hong Kong court on Monday for two weeks of psychiatric reports.
Rurik Jutting, a 29-year-old securities trader who until recently worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, is accused of killing two young Indonesian women whose mutilated bodies were found at his upmarket apartment in the southern Chinese city.
The case was "adjourned... for two psychiatric reports on the defendant's fitness to plead" said principal magistrate Bina Chainrai.
Jutting, who was in court Monday, will be remanded in custody and will next appear on November 24, Chainrai said.
Bearded and wearing black-rimmed glasses, Jutting remained impassive during the brief hearing at Hong Kong's Eastern Magistrate's court - his second appearance after being charged with the murders a week ago.
He spoke only once to say: "I do" when the magistrate asked him whether he understood the arrangements.
The bodies of Seneng Mujiasih and Sumarti Ningsih, both Indonesian and in their 20s, were discovered after Jutting called police to his flat in the city's Wanchai neighbourhood in the early hours of November 1.
Seneng was found naked in the living room, with knife wounds to her neck and buttocks.
Sumarti's decaying body was found hours later by police, stuffed into a suitcase on the apartment's balcony.
According to court documents, she was killed days earlier, on October 27.
Police are investigating whether the women were sex workers.
Wanchai is known for its late-night drinking holes popular with expatriate revellers, and is home to a thriving red light district.