Mental disorders impaired Hong Kong double murder suspect’s ability to control actions, court hears in Rurik Jutting trial
Forensic psychiatrist diagnoses British banker with narcissistic personality disorder, stimulant cocaine use disorder, alcohol use disorder and sexual sadism disorder
A banker accused of murdering two young women in his Wan Chai flat did so because his “narcissistic personality’’ combined with cocaine, alcohol and sexual sadism disorders left him unable to control his actions, the High Court heard yesterday.
On the first day of the defence case, British banker Rurik Jutting, who denies murder but admits killing Sumarti Ningsih, 23, and Seneng Mujiasih, 26, on the grounds of diminished responsibility, the court heard from Dr Richard Latham, a consultant in forensic psychiatry in Britain’s National Health Service.
Latham said he had diagnosed Jutting, 31, with narcissistic personality, sexual sadism, cocaine and alcohol use disorders and that they had “substantially impaired” his ability to control his behaviour.
“I feel very confident these four diagnoses are correct,” Latham testified in his personal capacity as an independent psychiatrist. “I certainly didn’t think he was trying to exaggerate any mental disorder.”
The psychiatrist also told the jury of five men and four women that the cocaine and alcohol disorders contributed more than others at the time of the killings.
Earlier, the court had heard Cambridge University-educated Jutting recounting in home-made videos and police interviews how he tortured and killed Sumarti Ningsih, 23, before killing Seneng Mujiasih, 26, while he was high on cocaine in 2014.
The psychiatrist’s report, compiled from watching the videos and conducting an interview of over five hours in March, shed light on Jutting’s childhood in Britain and his use of cocaine and alcohol in the years leading up to the killings.
“I’m not saying that he had no ability to control himself, but that it was substantially impaired,” Latham said. “Alcohol and drugs contributed more than the other diagnoses [at the time of the killings], but you can’t discount the other disorders,” Latham added.
Jutting’s narcissistic personality disorder, meanwhile, affected his sense of entitlement, which Latham said affected the defendant’s ability to empathise with and understand the feelings of other people.
He added that diminished responsibility could only explain the killings, which he described as impulsive acts, but not his other behaviour which showed planning. “While he may have planned the harm that he caused, he didn’t plan the killings,” Latham said, referring to the alleged torture.
“The killings themselves represent that he was not so much in control at that point. They were more impulsive acts.”
The court also heard that Jutting was a victim of violence in the past and at the age of 16 had to care for his father following a suicide attempt while they were both in the house.
I’m not saying that he had no ability to control himself, but that it was substantially impaired
Jutting was also the victim of a sexual assault as he was forced to perform oral sex on a boy and one time felt he was raped when he was too drunk to resist sexual intercourse with a woman.
In 2010, he picked up his cocaine use through escorts he met in London. That same year also saw Jutting becoming less able to manage alcohol as he progressively drank more and sometimes relied on substitute stimulants such as Red Bull. Latham said the most significant feature of Jutting’s sexual sadism was the way he described his performance during sex.
His boastful attitude was also seen during his police interviews with a female officer, in which he recounted the events in a calm manner and at one point reminding her to take his name for the interview.
Latham described Jutting as a highly intelligent man who was also extremely narcissistic – to a point that it became a disorder as it caused significant impairment to his functioning.
“Very frequently people with narcissistic personality disorder struggle with failures, criticisms, and what can happen in those situations is dramatic deterioration,” the consultant said.
In the months before the killings, the court heard that Jutting went through periods of depression as felt that his life fell into a mess and he stopped seeing a point to his life.
The trial continues today before deputy High Court judge Mr Justice Michael Stuart-Moore.
