Byron woman’s court heartache Bali prison stint grows

BYRON Bay woman Sara Connor will spend an extra year behind bars after her sentence for her role in a Bali police officer’s death was increased yesterday.

The Bali High Court found that Connor, 46, deserves a five- year sentence and that the four years handed down at the lower court was too lenient for her role in the crime.

The court found two aggravating factors which had not been considered by the lower court – that Connor had left the victim to die and failed to help him and that the crime had damaged Bali’s tourism image.

For this reason they decided to sentence her to more time behind bars at Bali’s Kerobokan prison.

“Aggravating factors that have not been considered by the panel of judges in Denpasar District Court are one, the defendant left the victim and didn’t try to help the victim, even though she knew that the victim’s body was still facedown. Two, the defendant has damaged the image of Indonesian tourism, especially tourism in Bali,” presiding Judge Sutoyo said, in reading the court’s judgment.

“Based on the panel of judges of Bali High Court, there is no reason to release the defendant, so that the defendant should be kept in custody.”

The original trial heard that the officer had lived for two hours after Connor and her British boyfriend David Taylor left him dying on a Kuta beach in the early hours of August 17.

Connor was not in court for yesterday’s verdict but will be devastated by the decision, which will take her away from her two children for another year.

The police officer’s widow, Ketut Arsini, told News Corporation she was disappointed that the sentence was not longer but left the decision to the court.

She told how her heart still aches for her husband, the father of their two children.

“If you ask whether I feel disappointed or not, of course I feel disappointed because I have lost my husband. However, if that is the decision made by the judge, we could not say anything. Maybe it is the sentence that is deserving for her,” Ms Arsini said.

“I believe in the court process. whatever they decide, I accept it.”