UPDATE: Despite local media reports that Briton David Taylor’s lawyer stated his client confessed to the killing, reports are coming out that attorney Haposan Sihombing says his client bashed the officer, not killed him.
British man David Taylor has confessed to killing Bali policeman I Wayan Sudarsa, his Indonesian lawyer announced in a statement on Monday night.
Sudarsa’s body was found with severe head and neck injuries on Kuta Beach last Wednesday. Taylor and his Australian girlfriend Sara Connor were named as suspects after her ATM card and driver’s license were found at the scene of the crime.
Attorney Haposan Sihombing says his client has admitted to beating Sudarsa with a blade, causing his death in the early hours of August 17, and is displaying remorse for his actions.
Sihombing made the statement at Denpasar Police’s Criminal Unit on Monday night.
“David admitted it all. He is remorseful,” Sihombing said, as quoted by Tribun Bali.
Sihombing told local press that his client confessed to investigators that just before Sudarsa’s death, he and his girlfriend had been at Kuta Beach when they noticed her bag missing. Going back to where they had been sitting by the beach entrance earlier, they ran into Sudarsa and asked him if he had seen the bag. Sudarsa then led Taylor to a spot where he allegedly pushed him into the sand, making him fall down. Then there was a struggle between Taylor and Sudarsa. Taylor attacked with a blade and struck Sudarsa’s head with a bottle while they were wrestling, the attorney said.
In addition to using the blade and bottle, Taylor also confessed to striking Sudarsa’s head with binoculars belonging to the officer.
“They met the man on the beach and asked him if he saw anything. Afterwards, the man said that he was a policeman and pushed David,” Tribun Bali quoted Sihombing as saying.
The attorney further explained that so far, no one has been able to find out who took Connor’s bag in the first place. He added that his client initially said it was Connor who engaged in the struggle with Sudarsa and was pushed down into the sand. But after the attorney suspected his client had been hiding something and urged him to tell the truth, Taylor made the confession.
Meanwhile, Connor’s lawyer, Erwin Siregar, has explicitly said the Australian woman did not kill.
“I’ll tell you one thing. She didn’t kill the victim,” Siregar said on Monday night, as quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald.
He insisted that there was no rape or sexual abuse element in the case and that both Connor and Taylor were drunk during the incident.
“She saw (it) looks like David punched this guy. But she not remember how many times and with what,” lawyer Robert Khuana also said.
“When she tried separating them this man bit her arm and then her leg.”
It’s likely that the pair will be tried separately, Sihombing said.
ALSO READ Crowdfunding page set up for family of murdered Bali policeman via local charity, Solemen
Reader Interactions