David Taylor says Sara Connor did not take part in Bali police officer fight

AUSTRALIAN mother Sara Connor’s best chance of beating murder charges in Bali now appears to be her boyfriend and co-accused David Taylor.

Sara Connor and David Taylor while taking part in a police reenactment on Kuta beach on August 31 Picture: Zul Eduardo

AUSTRALIAN mother Sara Connor’s best chance of beating murder charges in Bali now appears to be her boyfriend and co-accused David Taylor.

Prosecutors in Bali will today call on Judges to throw out the Byron Bay woman’s challenge to her murder charge as her trial resumes.

They will tell the Denpasar District Court that her challenge, lodged by her defence at the start of her trial, is baseless and the trial should go ahead.

Connor’s lawyers admit that they are unlikely to succeed, saying that 95 per cent of the time Judges throw out such objections, known as an eksepsi.

The 46-year-old mum of two, along with her British DJ boyfriend David Taylor, 34, faces three charges relating to the death of Bali police veteran Wayan Sudarsa, whose bloodied body was found on a Kuta beach in the early hours of August 17.

Connor maintains she is innocent and played no role in killing the officer. Instead she claims she tried to separate her boyfriend and the officer as they fought on the beach.

And to date Taylor, 34, appears to be her best chance of beating the charges.

David Taylor is escorted to the Denpasar District Court in Bali. Picture: Lukman S. Bintoro

The couple arrived at Denpasar court last week holding hands.

Separated into adjacent cells, Taylor constantly tried to make eye contact with his girlfriend, who hid tearfully in a corner of the cell toilet to avoid media cameras.

“The fact is David loves Sara,” Taylor’s lawyer Haposan Sihombing says.

The first indication that Taylor intends holding the line for his girlfriend came in his own trial last week when he told the Judges that the attack on the officer was not a group attack, but that he was acting alone.

He was responding to evidence from the chief police investigator, Sulhadi. The Judges asked Taylor his response to the officer’s evidence, that both Taylor and Connor were involved in attacking and beating the officer to death.

Speaking though a translator, Taylor denied it was a murder, saying that he was defending himself in a fight with the officer.

“It is not true that the victim was group assaulted. The defendant was doing it himself. It is not true that the defendant committed murder. He only defended himself,” the translator said on behalf of Taylor.

Taylor’s response is significant because the couple face charges that they were together involved in the murder. In addition to the main murder charge and the assault and violence charges, prosecutors have added a conjunctive charge, which states that they were in company for

the crime.

Sara Connor listens to the translator during her second trial at Denpasar Court, Bali. Picture: AAP

It is not the first time that Taylor has sought to distance Connor from the most serious charges. During the police investigation phase he also changed his official statement. After initially saying that Connor had told him she hit the officer, he then said this was not true and he was stressed and panicked at the time.

Later in the trial process Taylor will be called by the prosecution as a witness in Connor’s trial.

Taylor’s own trial resumes on Wednesday when the prosecution will call further witnesses.

Last week four witnesses were slated to testify but only two turned up — the police investigator and a security guard from the Pullman Hotel, across the road from the murder scene. However a second Pullman security officer, Suryana, who witnessed some of the fight between the officer and the couple, did not turn up.

Suryana has told police in his statement that he watched the incident for about 15 minutes before leaving, believing it was not serious and with no idea the man lying on the sand was a police officer.

He says in his statement that he saw a local man lying on the sand, a foreign man with dreadlocks sitting on top of him and a woman with her arm around the victim’s neck.

But aside from Suryana there are no other eye witnesses as to the fatal events on the Kuta beach.

Sara Connor is escorted by police after attending her second trial at Denpasar Court, Bali, Indonesia, on November 16. Picture: AAP

Connor’s lawyers argue that she was not involved in the fatal attack and at the time was searching for her lost handbag.

Taylor’s UK-based parents, John and Jane and his sister Rachel are in Bali to support the DJ who most recently lived in Byron Bay. His father John is a minister and was wearing his religious collar at court last week.

Lawyers say they want to meet the victim’s widow, Ketut Arsini, and family to apologise and have made inquiries through the local village chief but have had no response. However Ms Arsini has told News Corporation she does not want to meet any of those accused of killing

her husband. She says she can never forgive the couple.

Taylor has already sent a letter of remorse to Ms Arsini, telling her that the tragic event will haunt him for the rest of his life

Originally published as David Taylor says Sara Connor did not take part in Bali police officer fight