An Indonesian bar owner who bludgeoned an Australian tourist to death after he urinated has been jailed for just 18 months.
I Gede Wijaya, 39, was drinking alcohol with Perth man Troy Scott Johnston, 41, on February 23 when he hit the Australian with a metal bar stool.
The two were reportedly drinking together when Mr Johnston, who was on holiday with family, urinated on Wijaya’s leg.
Wijaya, owner of Uncle Benz Cafe in Badung where the incident took place, picked up the chair and hit him on the head with it.
He fled the scene before finally being arrested.
I Gede Wijaya, 39, (pictured) has been sentenced to 18 months in prison in Bali after he killed Perth man Troy Scott Johnston, 41, with a metal crutch in February
Mr Johnston (pictured with his wife Ni Nyoman Purnianti) had been drinking with Wijaya Arak before reportedly getting drunk and urinating on the bar owner and cocktail expert
Wijaya told officers that after urinating on him, Mr. Johnston started throwing glasses and trying to hit him with a chair.
Judge Gede Putra Astawa appeared in court in Denpasar in August and said that although the accused initially acted in self-defense, he had left the victim for dead.
“Leaving the victim alone is unforgivable. The suspect could have called an ambulance to assist the victim. His self-defense led to someone being injured and losing his life,” he said. according to news.com.au.
Judge Astawa found Wijaya “legally and conclusively guilty of committing the criminal act of lethal assault” and sentenced him to 18 months in prison, minus any time he had already served.
Mr Johnston was on holiday in Bali with his wife, Ni Nyoman Purnianti, and infant son when he went out for a drink around 7:30 pm.
Wijaya, a cocktail expert, told a police press conference that the pair bought each other glasses of Arak, a cloudy white Lebanese drink, all evening.
‘He pays. He treats me. But later I will also treat him,” he told the police.
However, he claimed that Mr Johnston was drinking too much and began throwing bottles and glasses onto the street outside.
Wijaya said he tried to calm the Australian, but he hit him in the waist and urinated on his leg, then stumbled out and collapsed.
“He peed on my left leg… I tried to tell him to cut it out. But he went in and threw glass cups at me,” he said.
“He was drunk and lost control… I tried to calm him down.”
The court heard Mr Johnston pick up a barstool in an attempt to hit Wijaya before the owner of the bar retaliated and hit Mr Johnston with a metal stool.
Wijaya claimed he only did this in self-defense, but admitted that he fled the scene immediately afterwards, leaving the father of a child in a pool of blood.
Mr. Johnston had been last contacted at 10:30 pm, and after hours of silence, she and her brother set out to find him.
The pair found Mr Johnston unconscious on the bar terrace at 3:45 am.
Mr Johnston, who worked as an airport controller for Rio Tinto at the Perth Airport operations centre, died while being rushed to hospital.
Wijaya alleged that after trying to quell the situation, Mr. Johnston started acting violently, which led to Wijaya hitting him on the head with a metal crutch (pictured)
Mr Johnston was discovered by his wife (pictured together) in a pool of his own blood at Wijaya’s Uncle Benz Cafe in Badung at 3:45am on February 23 after the bar owner fled the scene.
Wijaya, a father of one child, lost his father just a few weeks before the incident, and his mother last April.
“Forgive your arrogant son, mother… the best and peaceful place for you by his side… Light the path of your children and grandchildren,” he wrote online after his mother’s death.
Despite the seemingly light sentence, Elizabeth Ghozali, a criminal justice lecturer at Santo Thomas Catholic University in Medan, told news.com.au it was appropriate.
Murder was not his intention. He had already verbally told the victim to stop, so the causality of the offense was a result of Johnston’s actions,” she said.
“The judge did not impose a heavy sentence because the altercation was started by the victim.”
The Indonesian police had initially tried to charge Wijaya with murder, but the prosecutor’s office opted instead for a charge of negligence.
At the police press conference in February, Wijaya expressed regret over the killing of Mr Johnston, saying that the two men knew each other well.
“I knew him really well, so I wasn’t going to do that,” he said.
Uncle Benz Cafe was closed as police inspected the crime scene in the days following Mr Johnston’s death