Lawyers for Aussie mum Sara Connor want to call two Sydney women as defence witnesses at her trial over Bali cop murder

LAWYERS for Aussie mum Sara Connor say they are confident she will beat murder charges as they urge the court to call on two secret witnesses.

LAWYERS for Byron Bay mum Sara Connor will seek to call two Sydney women as witnesses in her upcoming trial in Bali over the killing of a police officer.

Connor’s Australian barrister, Peter Strain, said last night the two Australian witnesses were very important to her case, despite police and prosecutors not including their evidence.

“We will certainly be attempting to call the two sisters who heard Sara screaming “let him go, leave him alone. This evidence appears to be entirely consistent with Sara’s version of events,” he said.

“We have great respect for the Indonesian legal system and are hopeful that once all the evidence is heard Sara will be acquitted and be able to go home to her children.”

And Connor’s Indonesian lawyer, Robert Khuana, said the legal team was confident of beating the charges against the Byron Bay businesswoman.

Prosecutors yesterday confirmed that Connor and her British boyfriend David Taylor will face three charges — murder, violence causing death and assault causing death — when their case comes to court next month.

Sara Connor and her British boyfriend David Taylor are to face murder charges over the murder of a Bali policeman. Picture: Zul Edoardo

The prosecution team yesterday declared that the police brief of evidence, known as a dossier, is complete.

But it does not included statements from the Sydney women.

Sisters Coleen Bowen and Kim Watson were staying in beachfront rooms at the Pullman Hotel, across the road from the beach where the officer died.

On the night of the death both were woken by screaming and fighting from the beach and have since offered to make statements for the investigation.

Denpasar Prosecutions crime section head, Ketut Maha Agung, said the prosecutions team did not think it necessary to take their statements.

Sara Connor has been in custody in Bali since August. Picture: Lukman S. Bintoro

“We have declared the dossier is complete and there is no statement from them. Without it we think that its already enough to declare it P21 and hand it over to the court,” Mr Agung said.

“For the prosecution team all the witnesses in the dossier are enough.”

Haposan Sihombing, Taylor’s lawyer, said once he had studied the dossier he would decide if the two women were needed as witnesses in his client’s case.

Both Connor and Taylor will face identical charges in separate trials — murder, carrying a 15-year maximum jail term, violence causing death, with a 12-year maximum and assault causing death, which has a seven year maximum term.

In the first stage of a handover process known as P21, Denpasar prosecutions chief, Erna Normawati Widodo, said she had signed a letter declaring the brief of evidence complete.

Within days both Connor and Taylor will be handed to the custody of prosecutors and will be sent to Kerobokan prison to await their trial.

Since their arrest on August 19 the lovers have been held in the police holding cells at the Denpasar police station.

They are accused of the bashing murder of Bali police officer Wayan Sudarsa, whose bloodied body was discovered on a Kuta beach in the early hours of August 17.

The 30-year police veteran had suffered 17 head wounds and 42 wounds to his body altogether and died of head injuries. It is alleged that Taylor repeatedly bashed him about the head with a broken beer bottle, the officer’s own binoculars and a mobile phone.

When they arrive at Kerobokan they will initially be held in the cell blocks designated for new arrivals, in order for them to acclimatise to jail life.

He and Sara Connor, in her mugshot, are to face murder charges. Picture: Supplied

Dreadlocked David Taylor in his mugshot after the pair were arrested. Picture: Supplied

Connor will be in the women’s block and Taylor will be in the men’s section and they will only be allowed to socialise if they have visitors at the same time. The jail has long been chronically overcrowded.

Connor’s lawyers argue that there is not enough evidence to have her charged with murder and that from the beginning she has given the same version to investigators — that she was not involved in the murder but tried to break up a fight between her boyfriend and the police officer which started after an argument about her lost handbag.

Connor claims that after trying to separate the two she left and went away down the beach, looking for her handbag, and played no further role in the alleged incident.

Connor’s lawyer Mr Khuana said yesterday that in order to use the murder charge police should have evidence.

Bali police murder investigation

VIEW GALLERY

“At least they should have evidence that Sara had punched the victim … The fact that we get and from the re-enactment is that Sara never took part in hitting the victim. She only separated them. So the police should not impose those articles,” Mr Khuana said.

He said the most Connor should face is concealing evidence.

This relates to allegations that, in the days after the murder, Connor and Taylor burned their bloody clothes in an isolated spot and threw away the dead officers ID cards and mobile phone before seeking refuge at the Australian Consulate in Bali.

Connor has two young boys in her home town of Byron Bay who she has not seen since her Bali arrest.

She had only arrived in Bali in the afternoon before the officer’s death for a week’s getaway with her lover, Taylor, who was heading back to the UK.