'Sorry' after guilty verdict

British banker Rurik Jutting apologised to the families of his victims on 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 defence 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."

During the trial, jurors watched horrific footage of Jutting torturing Ningsih in his flat, where he kept her captive for three days before slashing her throat in his bathroom and stuffing her body into a suitcase which he stored on his balcony.

Days later he murdered Mujiasih, slashing her throat in his living room.

Both women were in their 20s and had gone to Jutting's apartment after he offered them money for sex.

Jutting's defence argued that his control had been impaired by his heavy use of cocaine and alcohol, combined with narcissistic personality and sexual sadism disorders.

But the prosecution argued he had been able to make controlled decisions.

Source: AFP