Bali: Australian woman Sara Connor and Briton David Taylor have arrived in a Bali court ahead of verdicts and sentences in their murder trial.
The pair arrived at Denpasar District Court at 5.14pm Australian eastern time. One of Mr Taylor's lawyers, Erick Sihombing, said he was nervous and had been unable to eat lunch ahead of the verdict.
Mr Taylor appeared tense as he sat in court listening to the judge summarise the evidence. His right hand was balled in a fist which he held with his left hand.
His parents, John Taylor, a minister, and wife Janet sat in the second pew of the court, listening intently to proceedings.
Ambra Bertoldi, one of Ms Connor's closest friends, who has provided daily support for the Byron Bay woman in Bali, including bringing her tiramisu on her birthday, was also in court for Mr Taylor's trial.
Seven gruelling months after the brutally bashed body of a police officer was found on Bali's Legian beach, a panel of judges will today deliver their verdict.
Ms Connor, 46, has protested - often bitterly - that she is innocent and had nothing to do with the death of Wayan Sudarsa, a married father of two and police officer in Bali for 35 years.
She insists all she did was try to break up a fight between her younger lover - British DJ David Taylor - and a stranger on the beach, whom she later learned was Mr Sudarsa.
The fight was sparked after Mr Taylor accused the police officer, whom he believed to be a bogus police officer, of stealing Ms Connor's handbag, which had mysteriously disappeared as they kissed at the water's edge.
"I don't even know why I am here," Ms Connor told reporters outside Denpasar District Court last December.
And, more recently, she lamented: "How different my life would have been if my bag was never stolen and the taxi driver had taken me to the police station that night."
The prosecution believes Ms Connor's claim that she cut up Mr Sudarsa's identity cards to protect him from identity theft to be preposterous.
They say her expression of regret is an admission of guilt and she should have reported directly to the police instead of going to the Australian Consulate-General when she realised there was a manhunt for her.
Prosecutors have requested both Ms Connor and Mr Taylor, 34, serve eight years behind bars, a sentence demand which came as a massive shock to Ms Connor and one her lawyer says is "1000 per cent not fair".
The couple, who say they are still very much in love and have been photographed walking around Kerobokan jail holding hands, both testified it was Mr Taylor who bashed the officer.
The bite wounds on Ms Connor's arm and leg were inflicted while she was trying to separate the men, they allege, and she was off searching for her handbag when the blows that would prove fatal took place.
Mr Taylor and Ms Connor were grilled in court about why they did not report the incident to police.
Ms Connor testified she initially tried to do so. She wanted to go to the police station to report her stolen bag, she said, but the ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver refused to take her because she had no money. (According to the ojek driver, he didn't take her because she was covered in blood, and this triggered flashbacks of the Bali bombing.)
Ms Connor, who provided almost as much commentary outside the courtroom during her four-month trial as she did inside, claimed she subsequently decided not to pursue it after returning to her Kuta homestay.
"After I had a shower, I was calmer. I thought: 'It's OK, I don't have to report him, I don't want to give him any trouble'," she said.
Mr Sudarsa's widow, Ketut Arsini, an elementary school teacher in Jimbaran, spoke of her disbelief over the loss of her "humorous and healthy" husband of 31 years.
She has called for the couple to receive the maximum penalty under Indonesian law.
In one dramatic court scene, Ms Arsini refused a $2500 'donation' from Ms Connor, saying "I don't want a dime from her."
The judges have three options when they deliver their verdicts and sentencing today.
Ms Connor and Mr Taylor, who are being tried separately, have been indicted on three alternative charges: murder, fatal group assault, or assault causing death.
The three charges carry maximum prison sentences of 15, 12 and seven years respectively.
The prosecutors accepted the argument that the pair did not intend to kill the police officer and he was still alive when Mr Taylor left him on the beach.
They have not asked that the murder charge be imposed, instead requesting eight years' jail for fatal group assault.
Although judges can impose a greater or lesser sentence, they usually agree with the charge recommended by the prosecutors.
However Ms Connor's lawyer, Erwin Siregar, believes none of the three charges are appropriate.
He argues the only charge Ms Connor should have faced is concealing evidence after having cut up the police officer's cards. That charge would have carried a maximum jail sentence of nine months.
Ms Connor appears to have abandoned hope that the judges will find her not guilty and allow her to return to her sons, aged nine and 11, in Byron Bay.
"I have lost all hope to see my children grow up," she said late last month.
