A British investment banker charged with the murder of two prostitutes in Hong Kong branded himself an 'insane psychopath' in a chilling e-mail days before the bodies were found at his flat.
Cambridge graduate Rurik Jutting, 29, quit his job as a Merrill Lynch trader just days before the grisly discovery of one ‘nearly decapitated’ woman in a suitcase and another who had her throat slashed.
He appeared in court this morning for a short hearing in which the two charges of murder were read out to him and was remanded in custody until November 10.
Last night, it emerged that sending Jutting an email at his Bank of America Merrill Lynch account triggered an automated ‘out-of-office’ reply with a sinister message.
The e-mail 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].’
The message would appear to suggest he had meant to kill himself.
In another disturbing development, police in the former British colony were urgently investigating whether there were any more victims after photos of one of the dead women were allegedly among 2,000 pictures and videos on a smartphone used by Jutting.
The American Psycho-style killing spree came to an end on Halloween night when Jutting, from Surrey, reportedly rang police shortly after 3am.
Officers arrived at his blood-spattered 31st-floor apartment to find a 30-year-old Filipina prostitute, named locally as Jesse Lorena Ruri, still alive despite gaping knife wounds to her throat and buttocks. She died soon after.
Eight hours later, during a forensic examination of the flat, police officers spotted a suitcase on the balcony which had two feet protruding.
Inside was the decomposing naked body of the second prostitute, 25-year-old Indonesian Sumarti Ningsih.