Aust expat dies in Bali hospital

A retired Australian engineer has died in a Bali hospital 10 days after he was found with head injuries in his villa.

An Australian expatriate has died in a Balinese hospital 10 days after he was found in his villa with head injuries.

Retiree Neil John Bourke, who had lived on the Indonesian resort island for 10 years, was found early on May 11 with numerous wounds to his head by his housemate in his villa at Gunung Salak in Kerobokan.

The housemate, Paulus Y Fanggidai, says he heard noises in the middle night and when he went to investigate, "John was crawling near the pool, I saw blood on the floor."

The 63-year-old, reportedly a retired engineer from the Northern Territory, was taken to Kapal Hospital where he slipped into a coma and died on Friday without regaining consciousness.

Balinese police had been hoping to question Mr Bourke about his injuries because they weren't sure whether he had been hurt in a fall or had been assaulted.

"We can't determine what actually happened yet because during the incident, there's no one home except for the victim. When the victim is able to be questioned, only then we could explain it," Denpasar District Police Detective Chief Reinhard Habonaran Nainggolan had said.

On Friday, Det Nainggolan confirmed police would wait for the autopsy results to decide what had happened:

"From temporary investigation result, especially from the crime scene, fingerprints, the victim's belongings like the victim's cellphone, we haven't found any suspicion of suspects from outside the victim's house.

"There were only two witnesses, the victim and his assistant in that villa. With that, there's suspicion that the victim was hurting himself. But to make sure, tomorrow we will have the autopsy to match it with the result from crime scene."


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Source: AAP


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