The jury in the double murder trial of a former British banker has been told to weigh the evidence against him "intellectually" and not to be influenced by the "dreadful acts" he has confessed to.
Rurik Jutting admits killing two Indonesian women he had lured to his Hong Kong apartment in 2014, but denies murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
His defence team claims his cocaine and alcohol abuse, combined with personality disorders of sexual sadism and narcissism, impaired his ability to control his behaviour.
The prosecution has rejected this, arguing that Jutting was able to form judgements and exercise self-control, and citing mobile footage in which the former securities trader described raping, torturing and killing his victims.
Summing up the case on Monday, Deputy High Court Judge Michael Stuart-Moore told the jury they must consider whether Jutting was of "abnormal mind" at the time of the killing, which diminished his responsibility.
He said they should approach their verdict "intellectually", rather than be "coloured by passion or disgust that you feel at the dreadful acts which the defendant had admitted he carried out".
"A court of law, not a court of morals"
The mutilated bodies of 23-year-old Sumarti Ningsih and 26-year-old Seneng Mujiasih were found in Jutting's luxury high-rise flat in November 2014.
He admits holding Ningsih captive for three days and repeatedly raping and torturing her, before cutting her throat as she knelt in his bathroom.
One of the mobile phone videos showed Jutting detailing the items he had bought to torture Mujiasih, including a hammer, a blowtorch and pliers.
"Let's be clear about these, I am going to use these to torture someone in the most inhumane way possible," he had explained.
The Cambridge University graduate was a vice president and head of Structured Equity Finance and Trading (Asia) at Bank of America in Hong Kong.
His defence team says he was under huge stress from his banking job, and had turned to cocaine and alcohol.
He had also been sexually abused as a teenager at elite English private school, Winchester College, they said, where another boy had forced Jutting to perform a sex act on him.
Defence lawyer Tim Owen told the court his client was not "asking for sympathy" and acknowledged he had intended to kill both victims.
He said: "Not all killings are the same. I am asking you to do no more than ask you how his actions should be defined in legal terms.
"This is a court of law, not a court of morals."
If convicted of murder Jutting faces a mandatory life sentence in prison. The jury is expected to begin deliberating its verdict on Tuesday.
