Sara Connor: Bali murder accused gives final testimony, says she didn't destroy evidence
Updated
Byron Bay woman Sara Connor has denied wanting to destroy evidence to hide her involvement in the killing of Bali policeman, Wayan Sudarsa.
Key points:
- Sara Connor's testimony was final piece of evidence to be heard in her murder trial
- Connor said she wanted to act in policeman's best interests
- Prosecutors will outline punishment they want next week
She said she did not see her boyfriend, British man David Taylor, hit the policeman with a set of binoculars, a beer bottle and a mobile phone, and had no idea he was badly injured.
Her testimony was the final piece of evidence to be heard in her murder trial.
Connor told the court she was bleeding and scratched when she walked away from the beach in Kuta last August.
She said she had tussled with the policeman after she tried to stop him fighting with Taylor.
The dispute began when Taylor had tried to frisk the policeman and accused him of stealing Connor's bag.
She ran up to the pair to try and push her boyfriend away. She said she fell and ended up on the sand with the policeman.
"That's when he bit my arm. I pulled my arm up, my leg was close to his face, and he bit my leg," she said.
"I was so scared, my first reaction was to pull my leg out, so I dive forward ... I ripped the skin of my leg because he didn't open his mouth at this time.
"I was there to break up the fight, not to hurt him. I didn't expect this reaction from him."
Connor said she was so upset she did not see what happened next.
"Dave told me, 'go and look for your bag'. I run back to the beach, the same place where I left the bag where it was stolen. I was there looking around, I was crying, I was shocked," she said.
Taylor said he delivered two blows to the policeman's head with a large bottle of beer, and then ran from the beach.
"I hit him once again with [my] right hand with the bottle, then I ran away," he said.
"When he was on top of me, he had his right elbow on my throat, so I thought I was going to die, so when I finally got up I was scared for my life and I ran."
Taylor said he went back to the policeman to check he was alive. One of the judges asked him whether he started the trouble.
"I searched his body, he pushed [me] to [the] ground and punched me. If he was a policeman, why didn't he help me? Why did he laugh at me?" he asked.
Taylor tells victim's family he's 'truly, truly sorry'
This was the final chance for both accused tourists to explain their actions on the beach and afterwards, when they burned their blood-stained clothing and cut up the cards from the policeman's wallet, which they had taken from the officer.
Connor said she was acting in the policeman's best interests.
"I didn't know that anything serious had happened. [I] was there to break up [the] fight, not hurt Wayan Sudarsa," Connor said in her final testimony.
"I wanted only to protect his identity. There was no need to conceal evidence, there was no crime for me.
"I didn't have a need to destroy evidence. If I did, I would have done a better job. I would have destroyed the wallet. I didn't touch the wallet or the SIM card."
After their final evidence, both wanted to say something to the family of Mr Sudarsa.
His voice breaking, Taylor said: "My sincerest, deepest apologies from the bottom of my heart. I never intended to cause this sort of harm to anyone.
"I was put into an unfortunate situation where I had to defend myself, and that's all I did, and I'm truly, truly sorry to the family."
Connor said: "I feel really sad for their loss. I've been praying for them ever since I got to know that this happened."
Next week prosecutors will outline the punishment they want handed down.
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, laws, courts-and-trials, indonesia, australia
First posted
