The British national suspected of killing Balinese police officer Wayan Sudarsa has admitted to bashing him prior to his death.
David Taylor, a DJ from the UK (pictured above), and his partner, Australian Sara Conner (pictured below), were arrested and detained on Saturday on suspicion of murdering the policeman who was found dead on Kuta Beach on 17 August with 42 wounds to his body including 17 lacerations to the head.
“The cause of the death is a blow that repeatedly hit his head, that caused swelling in the brain, pressing the respiratory centre,” said Sanglah Hospital morgue chief Dr Dudut Rustyadi.
The British-Australian couple have denied being responsible for the alleged murder.
On Tuesday though, lawyers for Mr Taylor confirmed he had admitted to a violent altercation with Mr Sudarsa just prior to his death.
“When he is struggling with this man apparently he found this bottle and then he is trying to hit this man with this bottle,” Erick Sihombing, Taylor’s lawyer, said.
“He found an old cell phone, he hit the guy’s head on the back maybe twice. There is a bottle and an old phone.
“After the fight was done, he went out on the street, he found his girlfriend on the street and then he’s just said to his girlfriend: ‘the bag has already gone so let’s go back to the hotel’.”
Mr Sihmobing also said the pair admittted to burning the clothes they were wearing at the time.
“On Friday the 19th of August, they found on their clothes and trousers a stain of blood and hair, that’s why they tried to get rid of them by burning their clothes,” Mr Sihombing said, according to the ABC.
Initially the couple told police that while looking for her missing bag on Kuta Beach, Ms Connor had asked Sudarsa for help. Ms Connor alleged that the policeman then assaulted her.
The pair said they had nothing to do with Sudarsa’s apparent murder soon after, though.
However, on Tuesday Bali police said Mr Taylor had altered his story and confessed to having the fight with the now dead policeman, hitting him with the smashed beer bottle.
“After we interrogated them yesterday, we realised that what was said, what they said during the interrogations [on Saturday] were all lies,” Senior Commission Hadi Purnomo said on Tuesday.
“After he hit him like that then David went on a rage and hit him again with a smashed bottle and caused injuries to his head,” Purnomo said.
Senior Commission Purnomo went on to say that Taylor has now admitted to taking the dead policeman’s wallet and phone and burned his ID along with the clothes they were wearing at the time the alleged murder occured.
“Sara was involved here, she searched him as well,” he said, according to the ABC.
While lawyers representing Ms Conner say she had nothing to do with Mr Sudarsa’s apparent murder, Senior Commission Purnomo said the Australian was now also facing a charge of being an accomplice to murder, as well as murder and assault causing death.
TOP IMAGE: David Taylor (via Facebook)