British man David Taylor says it was panic, fear and desperation that drove him to hit a Bali police officer with a beer bottle, leave his motionless body in the sand on Kuta Beach and then later burn his clothes.
He didn't feel "guilty" about what had happened, until he learnt about the consequences, he told Denpasar Court on Tuesday.
Taylor, the boyfriend of Australian woman Sara Connor, was calm as he answered question after question from judges and prosecutors about what happened the night he allegedly killed local cop Wayan Sudarsa.
The 34-year-old and Connor, 46, are facing charges of murder, fatal assault in company and assault causing death over the alleged killing of Mr Sudarsa, whose bloodied body was discovered on Kuta Beach in the early hours of August 17 last year.
Taylor confronted Mr Sudarsa after Connor lost her purse on the beach.
Despite Mr Sudarsa telling Taylor he was a cop, the British man become "suspicious" and began frisking him.
"I was angry because the purse was missing and there was money in it," Taylor told the court through an interpreter.
During the fight that followed, Taylor said Mr Sudarsa was on top of him and pressing his elbow onto his neck.
Wielding a beer bottle, Taylor struck Mr Sudarsa to the side of the head causing a "splatter of blood".
"It was so hard to breathe. I thought I was going to die," Taylor said.
"When I finally got out (from underneath Mr Sudarsa), I was so afraid and so I just ran away."
He said he went back to check on Mr Sudarsa, turning his body so that he faced up and noticed he was still breathing.
Taylor took Mr Sudarsa's identification cards, which he and Connor destroyed when they returned to their hotel near Kuta Beach.
The pair maintain this was to "protect" Mr Sudarsa from possible identification theft.
Taylor described their decision to later burn their clothes as a "foolish mistake".
"I was thinking I was in foreign country. I was panicking and desperate."
Asked whether he would have felt guilty about what he had done if he had been able to leave Indonesia without being arrested, Taylor replied: "I didn't feel guilty until I learnt the consequences of that incident."
It is expected prosecutors will make a request for the sentence they believe should be imposed when Taylor's matter returns to court next week.
