A British businessman has been ordered to remain in custody in Hong Kong after being charged with murder over the death of an Indonesian woman at a waterfall in a park.

Jamie Tzewee Chapman, 34, did not enter a plea during his court appearance on Friday and his lawyer did not request bail.

The judge adjourned the case to January to allow time for further investigation.

Chapman and his wife, a Hongkonger, were arrested on Tuesday when they returned to the city from mainland China.

An unidentified person wearing a hood is escorted by police officers to the park where the body was found
An unidentified person wearing a hood is escorted by police to the park where the body was found for a video reconstruction (Bertha Wang/AP)

His wife had been held on suspicion of assisting an offender before being released on bail pending further investigation, police said on Thursday.

Police said Chapman and the Indonesian woman went to a waterfall in a park on Hong Kong Island together on Sunday night.

He left about half an hour later. Residents spotted the woman’s body in the pond below the waterfall on Monday morning, police said.

She had been struck in the head and drowned.

Mevi Novitasari, who was about 25, was a domestic worker in Hong Kong but did not work for the suspect, police said.

She was from Cilacap in Central Java province, Judha Nugraha, the director of protection of Indonesian citizens and legal entities, said from Indonesia.

Her employment agency and the Indonesian consulate will organise the repatriation of her body and the consulate general will continue to monitor the investigation, he said.