Australian, 27, arrested at Bali airport over alleged public sex act
Indonesian immigration and police arrested a 27-year-old Australian, identified as BA, at Bali’s Ngurah Rai Airport on 25 August after viral CCTV footage allegedly showed him having sex with a foreign woman on a local resident’s driveway…
Editor: Mursyid Sonsang
· Event date: · 4 min read
Bali — — An Australian man identified by Indonesian authorities as BA was arrested at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport over an alleged public sex act that was captured on CCTV outside a home in North Kuta and widely shared online, according to local officials and multiple media reports.
Immigration and police officers detained the 27-year-old at the international departures terminal on Tuesday, 25 August 2026, as he prepared to board a flight to Brisbane. Officials said he had been placed on a watch list after investigators used facial identification technology on the viral footage.
The alleged incident took place at about 6:30 p.m. WITA on Saturday, 22 August, in the yard or driveway of a local resident’s house in Tibubeneng village, North Kuta district in Badung regency. The location is in the Canggu area, a popular tourism and expat hub in Bali.
Authorities say BA, an Australian national born in 1998, was recorded engaging in sexual activity with a foreign woman in the residential compound. The woman’s identity has not been disclosed and police were still seeking her in the days following the arrest, according to Indonesian and Australian media reports.
- Suspect: BA, a 27-year-old Australian national born in 1998
- Alleged location: Tibubeneng village, North Kuta, Badung regency, in the Canggu area
- Alleged duration: Around 15 minutes, based on estimates cited by media reports
- Airport: I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport, Bali
How authorities identified and stopped him
Muhamad Novyandri, head of the Ngurah Rai Immigration Office, said the arrest was carried out jointly with Badung Police detectives after CCTV footage showing two foreigners performing an indecent act in front of a house in Tibubeneng went viral on social media.
According to Novyandri, coordination between immigration and police and facial identification from the footage led investigators to identify one of the alleged perpetrators as BA, who held a valid Visa on Arrival. Australian and international outlets also reported that police used facial recognition technology to match the man in the video.
Immigration officials subsequently placed BA on a watch list as a “subject of interest” and intercepted him at the airport before he could leave Indonesia on a flight to Brisbane. He was taken into custody for further questioning about the alleged public sex act.
Indonesian reports state that BA was accused of having sexual intercourse in a public space, but did not immediately specify the exact criminal articles under consideration. Officials said immigration would continue to coordinate with police and consider administrative sanctions, including deportation and entry bans, if legal violations were proven.
What the CCTV reportedly shows and local reaction
Media accounts citing the CCTV footage say BA and a foreign woman walked onto the driveway or yard of a local resident’s house and allegedly engaged in several sex acts near the property’s entrance. The homeowner or a female resident is reported to have discovered the pair outside the house, with the footage capturing her confronting them before they left the area.
The incident is estimated to have lasted about 15 minutes before the two individuals departed, according to reports based on police information and the recording. The homeowner then uploaded the video to social media, saying it was intended as a warning against behaviour that creates “negative energy” under Balinese Hindu beliefs.
Local media reported that residents planned or conducted a Hindu purification ceremony at the site to cleanse what was described as bad energy associated with the alleged act. Community leaders and officials have expressed concern that such incidents damage the image of Bali’s tourism areas around Canggu and North Kuta, where tensions have periodically surfaced over visitor behaviour in residential neighbourhoods.
As of late August, police said they were still working to identify and locate the foreign woman seen in the footage and were also reviewing another, separate public sex case captured on CCTV in nearby Canggu village.
Sources
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