‘Evil’ banker tortured women to death 10 years ago. Now his victim’s son speaks out
'He took my mother, I will never forgive him. He’s evil.'
Ten years on from the horrific murders committed by British man Rurik Jutting, the son of one victim has spoken out.
Warning: Some readers may find the violence in this story distressing.
British banker Rurik Jutting, 39, killed Indonesian women Sumarti Ningsih and Seneng Mujiasih in 2014 after meeting them at bars in Hong Kong’s city’s red-light district.
Jutting – who was 29 at the time – tortured 23-year-old Sumarti Ningsih for three days while using cocaine and then slit her throat, and also killed 26-year-old Seneng Mujiasih days later.
Horrific smartphone video clips showed the torture filmed by Jutting, who stuffed Ms Ningsih’s body inside a suitcase that he left on the balcony of his upscale apartment.
The son of Ms Ningsih, Mohammed Hafidz Arnovan, now 14, has spoken about his ordeal after Jutting killed his mother ten years ago.
He told the Mirror: ‘He took my mother, I will never forgive him. He’s evil.’
Rurik Jutting
Jutting was born in London in 1985 to parents Helen and Graham, and was described as an ‘ambitious’ child.
His childhood home was a grade II listed building called Foxwarren, which was said to inspire Wind in the Willows.
He attended the private school Winchester College, where fees cost nearly £50,000 per year for boarding pupils and £36,000 for day pupils.
He was admitted to Cambridge University, where he studied history and law at Peterhouse College before later accepting a position at Barclays, then joining Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
But in 2012, he ran into trouble professionally when auditors searched his team for violations.
Jutting said his move to Hong Kong for work felt like it had been ‘arranged by bosses’ to get him out of the way.
The BBC reported one manager told Jutting he was ‘one of the most unpredictable people he had ever worked with’.
Signs of a killer
After his arrest, it was revealed Jutting had an IQ score of 137 – putting him in the top percentage of the population for intelligence.
But along with his high intelligence, he also had narcissism personality disorder, sexual sadism disorder, as well as cocaine and alcohol use disorder.
Jutting began to exhibit qualities of narcissism and sexual sadism at a young age.
His inability to accept criticism in university was one sign of narcissism, the defence argued.
Jutting also spoke of a fantasy he had involving kidnapping three teenage girls from Wycombe Abbey, a girls’ boarding school in High Wycombe, northwest of London.
When he moved to Hong Kong, his behaviour began to spiral, with his then-girlfriend sharing worries about his alcohol use.
Jutting began using sex workers in 2009 and his behaviour became increasingly violent, the court case revealed.
By 2014 he was spiraling, going on cocaine binges that lasted days.
In one instance, he missed a meeting in London for work and as an excuse, told his boss he had HIV.
He began using Grindr to find men to have sex with but later told a psychologist he had been trying new experiences – but ‘everything was disappointing’.
But Rurik kept living a high life in Hong Kong as he spiraled out of control – the flat he lived in was a luxury development with keycards to each floor, a bar, garden, a roof swimming pool.
Seneng Mujiasih
Ms Mujiasih – who also went by the name Jesse Lorena – had lived in Hong Kong for more than eight years in 2014.
She first moved to Hong Kong from Indonesia to work as a domestic helper before working odd jobs to make ends meet.
Dutch DJ Robert van den Bosch, who knew Ms Mujiasih for four years, received a text from her hours before she would be killed.
‘I’m going to have fun. I’m going to a Halloween party,’ she messaged him.
He told the Telegraph: ‘Those really were the last words. Those are the two things repeating in my head. She was nice, normal, she didn’t use drugs.
‘And her life comes to an end like this. It is just crazy, really crazy. She was a girl who was always cheerful, always loving.’
Ms Mujiasih was from a small town near Java, Indonesia, and was a familiar face in the Wan Chai district where she met Mr Jutting.
She dreamed of building a home back in Indonesia, where she had been sending money she earned.
Mr van den Bosch added: ‘I think her dream was just to find a better life. The terrible thing is that her house in Indonesia was just finished and she said she would leave Hong Kong and go back to Indonesia to enjoy life.
‘She said, “Soon I will leave.” She was happy about it.’
Sumarti Ningsih
Born in Cilacap, Indonesia in 1991, Ms Ningsih moved to Hong Kong to support her young son and family.
She first went to China in 2011, where she worked as a domestic helper for nearly three years.
Ms Ningsih was able to send her family roughly £250 per month to help support her son, who she had when she was 17.
She called her family everyday, and spoke to her son – who was just five years old when his mother was brutally murdered.
Her older brother Suyitno told the Guardian in 2016: ‘Her son never really knew what it meant to have a mother.
‘He knows this woman is dead, that she was murdered, but doesn’t fully understand who she is in relation to him.’
The murders
On October 25, 2014, Jutting brought Ms Ningsih to his flat, intending to pay her for sex.
During this encounter, the sex turned from consensual to violent and Jutting began torturing Ms Ningsih.
He filmed her torture, which involved pliers, his belt, sex toys and his hands, all while on a drug-fuelled rampage.
After three days of nonstop torture, Jutting made Ms Ningsih lean over and lick the toilet and he began to slice her throat with a serrated knife.
He then dragged her into a bathtub where he ‘continued’, then wrapped her body and put it in a suitcase on his balcony.
After he killed Ms Ningsih, he filmed her mutilated body and said: ‘This is the first person I have ever killed. I cut her throat in the bathroom. I must come across as a f****** a***hole.
‘To be honest, these are the actions of someone who shouldn’t really be in society. She was crying. She was the bravest person I met. Her will to live was amazing.’
Another piece of footage showed his ‘torture kit’ including a blowtorch and sex toy wrapped in sandpaper, which he intended to use on his next victim – Ms Mujiasih.
He went out to meet Ms Mujiasih and brought her back to his flat, where they began kissing before she saw a gag nearby and panicked.
Jutting held her at knifepoint and threatened to kill her if she struggled – she did, and he slit her throat, leaving her body in his flat.
He took more cocaine then called 999 and his boss, and changed his voicemail to: ‘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 sentencing
During his court case, none of Jutting’s family came from the UK to support him.
Judge Michael-Stuart Moore said of the case: ‘He described himself as evil and a monster and neither description is adequate to bring home the true horror of what he did to that woman.
‘(This is) one of the most horrifying murder cases to ever come before the courts in Hong Kong.’
Despite the mounts of evidence, Jutting plead not guilty to murder by diminished responsibility, but did plead guilty to manslaughter. The jury found him guilty unanimously on both counts.
The aftermath
Ms Ningsih’s young son Mohammed was just five years old when his mother was killed by Jutting.
He spoke to the Mirror from his home in Gandrungmangu, Indonesia, calling the Surrey-born banker ‘evil’.
Ms Ningsih’s family have suffered extensively since the death of their daughter, having lost a major source of support and a loved one.
Her parents are demanding compensation as they now live in poverty and are without their beloved daughter.
Ms Ningsih’s father, Achmad, said: ‘He must take responsibility for what he did. If he pays the family, we would support his return to the UK. I lost my daughter, I want him to take responsibility.’
Where is Rurik Jutting now?
He is currently serving two life sentences in Hong Kong prison.
But the families of the victims are still suffering ten years on. The 14-year-old son of Ms Ningsih said this week that he will never forgive his mother’s killer.
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