British banker Rurik Jutting to appeal life sentence for torture and murder of two women

A British banker who was jailed for life for the gruesome murders of two women he tortured in his luxury apartment is planning to appeal.

Rurik Jutting was found guilty of killing Sumarti Ningsih, 23, and Seneng Mujiasih, 26, in his Hong Kong apartment in 2014.

The former Bank of America employee denied murdering the two Indonesian women on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to alcohol and drug abuse and sexual disorders.

Jutting admitted the lesser charge of manslaughter in a case that shocked many due to the brutality of the killings.

The bodies of Ms Ningish and Ms Mujiasih were mutilated, with Jutting describing how he tortured and killed them in a series of videos recorded on his phone.

In one video played in court, he said: "My name is Rurik Jutting. About five minutes ago, I just killed, murdered, this woman here."

The camera panned down briefly to show the body of Ms Ningish lying face down on his bathroom floor.

He then said: "It's Monday night. I've held her captive since early Saturday. I've raped her repeatedly. I tortured her, I tortured her badly.

"I cut her throat in the bathroom. To be precise, I cut her throat while she was bending over licking a dirty toilet bowl.

"I treated her as a non-person, a sex object. And that turned me on."

Despite his diminished responsibility claim, the jury unanimously found him guilty of murder.

Jutting's lawyer Michael Vidler said the appeal hearing would be held on 12 December and that it would focus on the "directions given by the deputy judge to the jury".

Cambridge-educated Jutting showed no emotion when the verdict was announced in a packed courtroom last November.

In his closing remarks, the judge described Jutting as the archetypal sexual predator who represented a grave danger to women, especially those working in the sex trade.

He warned that the possibility of a repeat offence was very likely.