A 20-year-old Bali bar owner has claimed he killed an Australian tourist in self-defense. Troy Scott Johnston, 40, died in an altercation with Gede Wijaya, 20, at Uncle Benz Cafe in South Kuta.
Mr. Johnston, who worked for mining company Rio Tinto at Perth Airport, is alleged to have urinated on Wijaya before the argument escalated with Wijaya hitting him over the head with a bar stool.
Wijaya was arrested and charged with murder but claimed in a police interview he acted in self-defense after Mr. Johnston attacked him with the same wooden stool.
The cocktail expert knew Mr. Johnston for just two days before the scuffle, but they were already chummy enough to be buying each other drinks.
Wijaya, who lost his father a few weeks earlier, claimed that Mr. Johnston drank too much and started throwing bottles and glasses into the street.
Wijaya tried to calm him down, but he punched him in the waist and urinated on his leg, then stumbled outside and collapsed. Wijaya left Mr. Johnston lying outside, but claimed he soon got up and charged into the bar, picking up the stool and trying to hurl it at him.
He said he grabbed the stool and hit Mr. Johnson in the head in self-defense, and did not mean to kill him. Police alleged that Wijaya was enraged by Mr. Johnson’s conduct and attacked him with the stool out of anger, not self-defense.
Wijaya now faces 15 years in jail. After striking Mr. Johnston with the stool, Wijaya simply left him lying in a pool of blood and went to his home behind the bar, police said.
Mr. Johnston’s wife and work colleagues paid tribute to the father and airport controller on social media. Mr. Johnston was employed by Rio Tinto at its Perth Airport operations center as an airport controller.
A spokesman for Rio Tinto said the company was providing support to family members and loved ones. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been contacted for comment.
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