NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / World

From Cambridge graduate to 'disturbed' high-roller: The very privileged life of Brit accused of gruesome Hong Kong murders

By Keiligh Baker for MailOnline
Daily Mail·
25 Oct, 2016 03:26 AM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Rurik George Caton Jutting, a 29-year-old British banker, is on trial over the deaths of two Indonesian women he is suspected of killing. Photo / AP

Rurik George Caton Jutting, a 29-year-old British banker, is on trial over the deaths of two Indonesian women he is suspected of killing. Photo / AP

GRAPHIC WARNING: CONTENT MAY DISTURB

A British banker accused of the murder of two prostitutes in Hong Kong was raised in a wealthy family and attended a $58,000-a-year boarding school.

Rurik Jutting, 31, grew up in leafy Surrey where his father, Graham, worked as an engineer and his mother, Helen, ran a nursery class.

He denies murdering Sumarti Ningsih, 23 and Seneng Mujiasih, 26, whose bodies were found in his apartment.

From the age of four to eight, he attended to the now-closed Wallop prep school, before attending Abberley Hall, a boarding school in Worcestershire.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Sumarti Ningsih (left) and Jesse Lorena Sumarti Ningsih were found dead, and Seneng Mujiasih near death, on November 1, 2014. Photo / Supplied
Sumarti Ningsih (left) and Jesse Lorena Sumarti Ningsih were found dead, and Seneng Mujiasih near death, on November 1, 2014. Photo / Supplied

His current situation is a far cry from his life in 1990, when he was pictured as an angelic six-year-old at Wallop Preparatory School in Weybridge, Surrey.

But a former classmate at the school said he was "a bit of a strange chap" and "wasn't very popular".

He told the Daily Telegraph: "I just woke up this morning to a phone call from one my classmates and he said 'you'll never guess what, Rurik is on the news'".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"He was in my class for a couple of years. He never really made a fuss about anything, he just seemed really quiet. He wasn't the most popular kid in the school."

He then moved to the prestigious Winchester College before winning a place at Peterhouse College in Cambridge.

His contemporaries at school have described Jutting as "arrogant".

Speaking to the Evening Standard, friends from Jutting's Winchester College days described him as "very sharp, very bright, and perceptive" and "more a leader than a follower" while a pupil at the exclusive school.

Discover more

World

London street locked down over scare

25 Oct 09:34 PM
World

British banker guilty of grisly murders

08 Nov 08:16 AM
World

Twisted mind: Is this 'psycho killer banker' mad or bad?

25 Dec 07:48 AM

Speaking anonymously, one said they assumed Jutting was looking for a job reference when his name appeared in the subject line of an e-mail following his arrest in 2014.

"If they had been looking for a reference, I'd have said: I wouldn't want to spend more than an hour in a room with him, but he was incredibly bright."

Another Winchester contemporary added: "I'd say he was - it may seem surprising - rather attractive.

Rurik Jutting. Photo / Supplied
Rurik Jutting. Photo / Supplied

"He had a sort of controlled poise and a certain understated smugness, a sort of superior air, but lightly worn. He seemed quite detached. I'd never have described him as affable."

Former schoolmates also spoke of their shock at seeing Jutting looking bloated in recent photographs - adding that they remember him as being "slim, tanned and attractive".

During his time at Cambridge, Jutting joined the rowing club and was the secretary of Clio, the undergraduate history society.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

He studied law and history at Peterhouse College in the mid-2000s.

A senior member of the university told the Daily Mail: "He was a bit of an action man, always on the move.

"I never heard about him getting into any serious trouble, so this comes as a real surprise."

During his career in banking, Jutting is said to have quickly acquired a taste for the high life.

After graduating, he embarked on a high-flying career in banking, working first for Barclays and then Merrill Lynch in London.

Police officers stand guard next to a prison bus which carries British banker Rurik Jutting upon his arrival at the High Court in Hong Kong. Photo / AP
Police officers stand guard next to a prison bus which carries British banker Rurik Jutting upon his arrival at the High Court in Hong Kong. Photo / AP

He then moved with the latter to Hong Kong where he was reportedly earning $600,000 a year by the time he quit his job.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

It was while working in Hong Kong that Jutting is said to have developed an obsession with having sex with 'two or three women' and hosting drug-fuelled sex parties that lasted for days at a time.

By the time of his arrest on suspicion of murdering the two young women found dead in his apartment, Jutting cut an entirely different figure to the brawny public schoolboy he once was, with photographs showing him looking bleary-eyed, bloated and surrounded by Asian sex workers.

Jutting had been in Hong Kong since July 2013, having transferred from Merrill Lynch's London office where he had worked since July 2010, according to his profile on LinkedIn.

Prior to that, he worked as a trader in capital markets at Barclays in London.

He also enjoyed skiing holidays in Courchevel, the Alpine playground for the elite, and when in London he relaxed at a private members' club in Shoreditch.

A migrant workers' alliance group holds placards to protest the killings of two Indonesian women in 2014 outside the High Court in Hong Kong. Photo / AP
A migrant workers' alliance group holds placards to protest the killings of two Indonesian women in 2014 outside the High Court in Hong Kong. Photo / AP

He mysteriously quit his job in the days around the first murder.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

A colleague who claims to have worked with Jutting at the Merrill Lynch offices in Hong Kong said the alleged killer had been under 'extreme pressure' while working 16-hour days before he quit the firm.

The woman, who declined to be named, told MailOnline: 'He was working until midnight and the early hours of the morning most days - he did extremely unsocial hours.

"You could see he that someone who worked those hours would feel significant pressure.

"You could see he was under more extreme pressure than most people."

Following his arrest claims emerged that he was obsessed with having sex with "two or three women" and held drug-fuelled sex parties lasting for days at his flat.

According to one former Hong Kong law enforcement officer, he went on regular "drug and drink binges".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The pupils of the 29-year-old banker were dilated from suspected cocaine abuse and he appeared to have used amphetamines to act as a 'livener', he told MailOnline.

Fellow drinkers in the Queen Victoria and Old China Hands pubs in seedy Wan Chai included the British former law enforcement officer, who worked on drugs investigations during his career in the UK and the Far East.

Photo / AP
Photo / AP

The ex officer told MailOnline: "Jutting would come into the pubs on Saturday and Sunday mornings in a very bad state.

"He didn't know who he was, where he was and what he was doing.

"Cocaine tends to slow your body down and it appeared he had used amphetamines, probably speed, to perk himself up."

Then on - on Halloween - at his $3,400-a-month Hong Kong apartment, a scene from a horror movie unfolded.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

A prostitute's throat had been slit, and police later found another woman rotting in a suitcase, trussed up and all but decapitated, who had been there for several days.

After he was arrested and brought to court, he looked a shadow of his younger self in the back of the police van, sporting a pot belly, bloated face and unkempt beard.

And any attempt to contact him at his Bank of America Merrill Lynch e-mail account triggered a disturbing reply that goes some way to shedding light on his downward spiral.

"I am out of the office. Indefinitely," it read.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from World

Premium
World

Opinion: Trump's rise and return centred on power and retribution

17 Jun 07:00 PM
Premium
World

New video reveals how predators interact with bats, increasing virus risk

17 Jun 07:00 PM
World

G7 summit: Canada promises billions in aid to Ukraine as US shifts focus to Middle East

17 Jun 06:50 PM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from World

Premium
Opinion: Trump's rise and return centred on power and retribution

Opinion: Trump's rise and return centred on power and retribution

17 Jun 07:00 PM

New York Times: He's using the government more openly against perceived enemies now.

Premium
New video reveals how predators interact with bats, increasing virus risk

New video reveals how predators interact with bats, increasing virus risk

17 Jun 07:00 PM
G7 summit: Canada promises billions in aid to Ukraine as US shifts focus to Middle East

G7 summit: Canada promises billions in aid to Ukraine as US shifts focus to Middle East

17 Jun 06:50 PM
Trump says the US won’t kill Iran’s supreme leader ‘for now’, as he demands Tehran’s surrender
live

Trump says the US won’t kill Iran’s supreme leader ‘for now’, as he demands Tehran’s surrender

17 Jun 06:30 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP