A young man from Perth arrested in Bali for the alleged assault on a taxi driver tried to hide in the warehouse on the third floor of a convenience store, but was later found by police.
According to 9News, Tore Gerard Vincenzo Bempasciuto was arrested in the early hours of yesterday morning, accused of hitting Saiful Nurokhim on the ground because he looked like someone who thought he had stolen his mobile phone.
Police say the 23-year-old was angry when he approached the driver around 4am (local time) at a taxi rank, outside Kuta nightclub Lxxy, and snatched his Samsung mobile phone. Mr Nurokhim, 43, allegedly chased Bempasciuto who then punched him to the ground. The Perth man’s female friend was also throwing punches at the taxi driver. The police report, obtained by 9News, said the Perth mechanical fitter “slammed the victim’s cellphone to pieces” then punched a local man who tried to intervene. The accused and his friend attempted to hide in the upstairs storage room of an Indomaret store, but were soon detained by police. Bempasciuto allegedly told officers his mobile phone went missing while he was partying at Bounty nightclub and he thought Mr Nurokhim looked like someone who’d been following him.
The taxi driver was left with a bloodied nose, bleeding inside his mouth and pain at the back of his head from hitting the ground. Bempasciuto’s friend hasn’t been arrested but police say they’ve seized security footage of the alleged attack and interviewed witnesses. He’s being held at Kuta police station and is facing up to two years and eight months in a Bali jail unless he compensates his alleged victim.
Source: 9 News
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