A FORMER Hampshire student accused of killing two sex workers in Hong Kong will plead not guilty to murder, it has been reported.

Rurik Jutting, 30, who studied at Winchester College - one of the country's most prestigious schools - is charged with murdering the two women in November last year.

The British banker appeared in court and entered no plea, but acknowledged that this could be taken as a not guilty plea.

He said “I do” twice when asked if he understood proceedings and the charges against him.

Jutting was arrested after the women, who were said to be sex workers from Indonesia, were found dead at the flat in the Wan Chai district.

Seneng Mujiasih, 29, was discovered with wounds to her throat while the body of Sumarti Ningsih, 23, had been stuffed in a suitcase.

Officers were called to the scene in the early hours of November 1, 2014, and seized a knife.

A Wan Chai assistant district commander for crime told the media that the body found in the suitcase had been there for “some time” and a Foreign Office spokeswoman confirmed that Jutting had been arrested.

Jutting, a graduate of Cambridge University, moved to Hong Kong from London in 2013 but quit his job with the Bank of America just days before the incident.

His trial is due to start in four to six weeks.