Money rolls in for Bali cop widow

A LOCAL charity has raised more than $10,000 for the widow of slain Bali police officer Wayan Sudarsa in the wake of her husband’s death.

Wayan Sudarsa's wife Ketut Arsini (54) and her two sons Putu Yudi (L, 30), and Kadek Toni (R, 23) in their home in Jimbaran Bali. Picture:

THE widow of slain Bali police officer Wayan Sudarsa learned today that a local Bali charity has raised more than $10,500 for her in the wake of her husband’s death.

Only days before Australian Sara Connor and her British boyfriend David Taylor go on trial for her husband’s murder on a Bali beach Ketut Arsini’s eyes welled up as the charity, Soleman, told her the news.

The charity, which works to assist the less privileged in Bali, launched a crowd-funding campaign for Ms Arsini in the days after her husband’s body was found on a Kuta beach in the early hours of August 17 this year.

With the breadwinner of her family and her husband of 31 years gone Ms Arsini has stressed about her children’s university education and how they will cope without him. The home with so many of his touches — its manicured lawn, his beloved roosters and songbirds and two dogs —

seems empty without him.

Wayan Sudarsa's wife Ketut Arsini. Sudaria died after an altercation with David Taylor and Sara Connor in Kuta beach in August. Picture: Lukman S. Bintoro.

Ms Arsini told News Corporation on the weekend that she will never be able to forgive Connor and Taylor for their alleged roles in her husband’s death and of how she wanted to tear up the apology letter penned to her by Taylor.

Yesterday was a moment of gratitude for the schoolteacher as Soleman co-founder, Brit Robert Epstone, informed her of the money raised and made arrangements for it to be paid to her at the end of this month.

Mr Epstone said her eyes had welled up and she had become emotionalduring their meeting.

“She was really quite emotional that foreigners had raised this,” Mr Epstone said.

Such fundraising was out of the normal remit of Soleman, which looks out for the disadvantaged and disabled children but Mr Epstone said raising the money for Ms Arsini was a good idea to bridge the gap between the local and expat communities.

Ms Arsini has remained dignified since her husband’s death and still does not want to nominate what sentence his killers deserve. She leaves that to the court.

The letter of apology from David Taylor sent to Wayan Sudarsa's family in Jimbaran, Bali. Picture: Lukman S. Bintoro.

But she told News Corporation of her anger and emotion at receiving an apology letter from Taylor, in which he told her of his remorse and of how he would be haunted by what happened until he was taken from the world.

Initially she was so angry she didn’t want to read it. She has not received a similar letter from Connor but says she doesn’t need it.

She is aware that Connor has said she is not guilty of the crime and maintains she tried to tried to break up a fight between her boyfriend and the police officer. Ms Arsini shakes her head, asking why Connor didn’t seek help for her husband.

“I don’t want my heart to be hurt anymore,” Ms Arsini says, adding she doesn’t care with Connor wants to say. And she doesn’t understand why the couple took her husband’s wallet and phone after the alleged bashing and didn’t seek help for him.

Ms Arsini will be in the Denpasar District Court on Wednesday for the first day of Connor and Taylor’s trial on charges of murder, violence causing death and assault causing death.