Prostitutes on the right trying to entice potential clients outside a bar in Hong Kong's Wan Chai district. Photo by "Amaury dR". The petite year-old is articulate and intelligent, with a girlfriend who also works as a prostitute.
Born in Hong Kong, Mandy began sex work four years ago while studying at a university in northwest England, leaving "tart cards" in telephone booths across town. She claims her relationship with Jutting began about a month before he — as she puts it — "went off the rails", after he saw her profile on Craigslist and texted her directly.
Their first meeting was in a room on the 15th floor of a hotel less than five minutes away from his flat. They met 12 times, never at his place. Mandy corroborates this. During their very first text conversation — before they'd even met in person — Jutting mentioned drugs as an incentive for her to pay him a visit: "If you like to get high Have a lot of coke For expat bankers like Jutting — those with cash to burn and a pair of restless nostrils — getting hold of drugs is as easy as walking down any street in Central or Wan Chai.
These factors have united to create a culture where visiting prostitutes and taking lots and lots of cocaine quickly becomes normalised for young British expats arriving in Hong Kong.
Xander is a blond former public schoolboy originally from Eastbourne, who now works in the financial industry. He moved to Hong Kong last year and quickly gained a penchant for gak. After graduating from a prestigious Scottish university he was originally sent to work in Singapore — a country with a harsh anti-drugs policy — where he had his first experience of prostitution. However, on his 24th birthday, he and his colleagues finished work and decided to go to a bar at the notorious Orchard Towers, the so-called "shopping mall of sex", known locally as the "four floors of whores".
