The lawyer representing a Briton held in Bali said his client had confessed to a violent confrontation with an Indonesian policeman who was found dead on a beach last week.

Haposan Sihombing said David James Taylor smashed the officer with the victim’s own binoculars, a beer bottle, and a mobile phone. He added that the policeman stopped moving following the waterside fight.

“Our client feels sorry for that incident. He admitted it,” Sihombing said late on Monday night.

Taylor has not spoken to the media since his arrest to confirm or deny reports made by his legal team. He faces up to 15 years in jail.

The Briton, a DJ, and his Australian girlfriend, Sara Connor, were arrested on Friday over the murder of traffic officer Wayan Sudarsa, whose bruised body was found in the sand of Kuta beach at 3.30am on Wednesday. Police said he had 42 wounds on his body.

Sihombing said a fight started because Taylor suspected the officer of having taken Connor’s handbag, which contained A$300 (£174). The bag went missing when Taylor and Connor were kissing on the beach in the early hours of Wednesday morning, he said.

The lawyer added that when Taylor confronted the officer about the bag, the policeman pushed him to the ground and a fight ensued.

Connor’s legal team said the mother of two from Byron Bay was not involved in the killing but was at the scene.

“I’ll tell you one thing. She didn’t kill the victim,” lawyer Erwin Siregar was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as saying.

Robert Khuana, another member of Connor’s counsel, said Taylor had called out to her that the man on the ground was not a policeman and told her to check his pockets as he pinned him down.

Khuana said Connor had seen David punch the man but could not remember how many times or with what. She had tried to drag the two men apart as they fought but the officer bit her arm and leg, her legal team said.

She then left the beach to try to catch a motorcycle taxi to the police station to report the missing handbag and confrontation but the driver refused to take her because her clothes were covered in blood.

Taylor later met her on the street and said the police officer had lost consciousness, Connor’s legal team added.

“She said David only told her that the officer had passed out. She was very shocked and sad (to later hear) that the victim died. She had no idea the victim ended up dead,” Siregar said.

The account by both legal teams ends days of confusing and conflicting statements during daily comments to reporters in Bali by the suspects’ lawyers.

Taylor’s lawyer first claimed that Connor had found a man lying in the sand and tried to help. On Monday, Sihombing said Connor had complained to Taylor that she had been attacked by a “bad cop” on Kuta Beach.

But it appears that Sihombing had pushed Taylor to reveal different details, saying that he had advised his client that Indonesian law was harsh on non-cooperative suspects.

The country’s criminal justice system is complex and trials can be lengthy. It is possible that Taylor and Connor could be tried in separate cases, even though they are both suspected of involvement in the same man’s death.

Lawyer Sihombing said the pair had tried to burn the clothes they had been wearing on the night of attack. It is not clear if that action will affect their cases. They were apprehended when they arrived at the Australian consulate in Bali on Friday.

High-profile trials in Indonesia are often overseen by several judges, sometimes up to five. However, it could be months before any trials starts, as prosecutors have to turn over evidence in dossiers to the court.

There are no juries and the system has been criticised in the wake of the execution of eight drug traffickers – including two Australian men, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

Among the foreigners on death row in Indonesia are two Britons, convicted drug smugglers Lindsay Sandiford and Gareth Cashmore.

Connor’s lawyer Siregar also represented fellow Australian Schapelle Corby, who was convicted of smuggling drugs into Indonesia. After spending nine years in jail, Corby was granted a reduced sentence and was released on parole in 2014.

The Australian Associated Press contributed to this report