A distraught Sara Connor can’t sleep as she awaits a verdict over the death of a Bali cop
SARA Connor is distraught and anxious and has been unable to sleep inside Bali’s Kerobokan prison as she waits to find out her fate.
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JUDGES in Bali will on Monday deliver their verdict in the police-killing trials for Byron Bay woman Sara Connor and her British boyfriend David Taylor.
Connor is distraught and anxious and has been unable to sleep inside Bali’s Kerobokan prison as she waits to find out her fate and is expecting the worst.
Prosecutors have demanded that Connor, 46 and Taylor, 34 be convicted of group violence causing death and both sentenced to eight years in jail.
Observers believe they will likely be convicted and sentenced to between six and eight years.
If the sentence is less than two-thirds of the eight years demanded by prosecutors there will be an immediate appeal to the High Court.
The danger then is that the appeal court could substantially increase the sentence.
Connor’s lawyer Robert Khuana said that Connor was stressed and unable to sleep and feels the case is unfair.
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He said there was no evidence that Connor’s actions caused police officer Wayan Sudarsa’s death and that under the charge she faces it must be proven that she, together with David Taylor, caused the death.
“There was only one witness that said Sara held the victim’s neck with her hand but that cannot be used as evidence because there was no wound to the neck that caused the victim to die,” Mr Khuana said.
And that witness was not credible.
“The post mortem said the victim died because of head wounds and David Taylor has admitted he punched the victim’s head with a beer bottle,” he said.
The verdict, in the Denpasar District Court, follows a four-month trial during which Connor denied killing the officer and said her only role was to separate him from fighting with her boyfriend amid accusations the officer stole her bag.
Taylor admitted he killed the officer, bashing him repeatedly with a beer bottle, binoculars, a mobile phone and his fists, but maintained it was in self-defence and that he feared for his own life.
The officer lived for about two hours after the attack and the doctor who conducted the post mortem said he could have survived if he had been taken to hospital that night.
Connor is being supported in Bali by her brother, David Pistidda, who has travelled from Italy and her longtime friend Ambra Bertoldi.
Taylor’s parents John and Janet, from the UK, are also in Bali for the verdict.
Veteran Bali police officer Wayan Sudarsa, a father of two sons, was found bashed to death on a Kuta beach in the early hours of August 17 last year.
Connor’s NSW drivers licence and ATM card were found in the sand near the victim’s body.
Connor and Taylor, who maintain they were not on the run and had no clue the officer was mortally injured or dead, were arrested on August 19 when they handed themselves into the Australian Consulate in Denpasar.
Connor has tearfully told of missing her two boys, aged nine and 11, who are with their father and her former husband at home in Byron Bay.
She said at one stage she has lost all hope of seeing them grow up.
The boys have not seen their mother since before her August 19 arrest.
Prosecutors have been scathing of Connor’s failure to admit her role in the killing, submitting to the court that her role in cutting up the officer’s ID cards and tossing them in the garbage showed a consciousness of guilt.
For this reason they demanded the same sentence as Taylor, who did confess and was remorseful in front of the court.
But in what many saw as a surprise they stopped short of calling for them to be convicted of murder, instead opting for group violence causing death, which carries a maximum 12-year sentence.
Lawyers for Connor have fought hard to have her exonerated completely and say the prosecution case against her lacks any credible witnesses.
Connor’s Australian barrister, Peter Strain, said the legal team was hoping for the best.
“We always hope for the best and have faith in the judges,” Mr Strain said.
The three judges who will decide the cases can however, ignore the prosecutor’s demand and find them guilty of any charge on the indictment and give them any sentence, higher or lower than eight years.
VERDICT POSSIBILITIES FOR SARA CONNOR AND DAVID TAYLOR
- Guilty of any one of the three charges on the indictment –
murder, group violence causing death or assault causing death;
- Sentenced to anything up to 15 years, which is the maximum
for unpremeditated murder;
- For Connor – Judges could find her not guilty of the three
charges on the indictment but find an offence of concealing
evidence of a crime proven but release her because the charge
was not on the indictment;
- If this happened the prosecutors could appeal to the Supreme
Court in Jakarta and Connor could then be convicted of any of
the original charges;
- Judges could find Connor not guilty of any charge and free her
with no prospect of appeal;
- If the sentence is less than two-thirds of the Prosecutor’s eight
year demand, the Prosecutors will immediately appeal;
- On appeal the High Court could then reinstate any of the
charges, murder, group violence causing death and assault
causing death and the danger is the sentence is increased to
anything up to 15 years.
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