The British banker charged with the murders of two Asian women found at his Hong Kong flat had broken off an engagement with a woman after she apparently cheated on him.
Rurik Jutting, 29, appeared at the former British colony's Eastern Court yesterday morning.
He declined to enter a plea. Asked if he understood the charges against him, Jutting replied: "I do."
Jutting was arrested early on Saturday after the disfigured bodies of two women, both Indonesian, were discovered at his 31st floor home in the Wan Chai district. Police believe one of the women had been dead for at least five days. There was blood all over the walls, one police source told the South China Morning Post.
Jutting's flat is just two blocks from a notorious red light district.
The women were identified as Jesse Lorena, who is thought to be about 30 years old, and Sumarti Ningshi, 25.
A former acquaintance said that until 2012 Jutting had been in a serious relationship with a British woman who also worked in the same area.
She apparently had an affair when she was seconded to New York and she had to fly back because Jutting had reacted so badly to it.
The couple subsequently became engaged and tried to patch up their relationship but it came to an end shortly after.
Said the acquaintance: "It was him who broke it off. I think he took her infidelity quite badly.
"They tried to reconcile and ultimately he proposed. But I think maybe a month or so into it he was not able to come to terms with the fact that she had been unfaithful."
The former acquaintance described Jutting as a highly competent individual "preoccupied with power and money" and "happy to go out and buy tables at clubs".
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