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British banker accused of HK double murder to stand trial in October 2016

Rurik George Caton Jutting (L), a British banker charged with two counts of murder after police found the bodies of two women in his apartment, sits in the back row of a prison bus as he arrives at the Eastern Law Courts in Hong Kong, China May 8, 2015. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The trial of a British banker accused of murdering two Indonesian women in Hong Kong last year will start in October next year, the man's lawyer said on Wednesday. The hearing will last around 20 days from Oct. 25 until Nov. 21, 2016, Rurik Jutting's lawyer Michael Vidler told reporters outside Hong Kong's High Court. Jutting, a former Cambridge graduate who worked at Bank of America Corp, did not appear in court and has yet to enter a plea. Police found the body of one of the women in his luxury, high-rise apartment with wounds to her neck and buttocks on Nov. 1 last year. The other woman's body was found inside a suitcase on the balcony of the apartment, authorities have said. The grisly murders of the two women, described by Hong Kong media as prostitutes, shocked the city, which has a low homicide rate. After being charged for the double murder, Jutting was found fit to plea following a psychiatric assessment at the end of 2014. (Reporting by Farah Master; Editing by Paul Tait)