British banker Rurik Jutting has been given life sentence after he was found guilty of torturing, raping and murdering two Indonesia women at his luxury Hong Kong apartment in the Wan Chai district in 2014.
The Cambridge-educated banker said "I am sorry beyond words" and accepted his punishment – a statement that provided the much need closure for the victims' family after two long years.
"My actions were horrific even by the standards of homicide trials...The jury has delivered a verdict that I cannot and do not have any objection to...I remain haunted daily by my actions. The evil I have inflicted can never be remedied by me, neither words nor actions" wrote Jutting in a statement that his lawyer read out in the court, reported The Guardian.
On 24 October, The accused pleaded not guilty on grounds of "diminished responsibility." Jutting's lawyer Tim Owen explained the argument for diminished responsibility which was based on the grounds of a personality disorder to which Deputy High Court Judge said: "there isn't a disease here, it is a personality disorder."
Fair verdict
Meanwhile, the victims' families breathed a sigh of relief. "We are relieved at hearing the verdict. We wanted the maximum penalty under Hong Kong law for our daughter's killer and we have gotten that today," said parents of one of Jutting victims.
While giving the verdict, Judge Michael Stuart-Moore said that jutting showed no remorse during the entire trial period and called him an "archetypal sexual predator."
Gruesome twin murders
Jutting's victims, Sumarti Ningsih (23) and Seneng Mujiasih (29), travelled to Hong Kong in the hopes of providing some extra income for their families back at home.
Police found the bodies of the two women, one cramped inside a suitcase in the balcony and the other lying inside the apartment with injury marks to their neck and buttocks along with a 12-inch knife, sex toys and cocaine on 1 November 2014.
After investigations, it was revealed that the women were filmed by Jutting while he brutally tortured and raped them.
The case highlighted the city's extreme inequality that is very much prevalent even today. Several domestic helpers' community representatives were seen outside the High Court holding placards reading "Justice for Wanchai Murder Victim" and "Stop Violence" during the trial.
