British banker accused of killing sex workers is remanded in jail

Rurik George Caton Jutting was arrested after the bodies of the women – reportedly sex workers from south east Asia –were found at his flat in the Wan Chai district of the former British colony in the early hours of Saturday.

One of the victims died six days before her body was discovered in a suitcase.

The two murder charges were read to Jutting, who wore black trousers and a black T-shirt, and he was remanded in custody to appear again on November 10.

Jutting asked to be remanded in prison rather than police custody and was granted his request by the judge.

Martyn Richmond, a temporary lawyer assigned to him, complained that police refused to let him contact a lawyer of his choice or the British Consulate while in custody.

Mr Richmond said that if Jutting’s requests were granted, he “may well co-operate” with a police reconstruction at the crime scene.

The 29-year-old is a Cambridge-educated investment banker who had been employed at Bank of America Merrill Lynch until recently.

He moved to Hong Kong from London in July last year and is understood to have quit his highly paid job in the last few days.

Before leaving he appeared to have set a chilling automatic response for his email account at the bank which seemed to imply that he is an “insane psychopath”.

The email response read: “I am out of the office. Indefinitely. For urgent enquiries, or indeed any enquiries, please contact someone who is not an insane psychopath. For escalation please contact God, though suspect the devil will have custody (Last line only really worked if I had followed through).”

Last Monday he posted a picture on Facebook of his high-rise balcony in the upmarket 40-storey J Residence where he was living and commented that he was embarking on a “new journey”.