An Australian man accused of intimidating his Tinder date so much she tried to climb down from his balcony and fell to her death has been found not guilty of murder.
Gable Tostee, 30, was on a first date with New Zealander Warriena Wright, 26, in August 2014 when she died. They had been drinking in his apartment at the Surfers Paradise seaside resort on Queensland's Gold Coast.
An audio recording played to Brisbane Supreme Court appeared to show the pair fighting, with Wright threatening to "destroy" her date's jaw and him warning: "If you try to pull anything, I'll knock you out."
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She is later heard saying "just let me go home" when Tostee allegedly locked her on the 14th-floor balcony.
Wright fell from the balcony at around 2.20am, after which Tostee left his apartment and went out to buy a slice of pizza. He returned to find police officers at his home and called his father to pick him up at 3.23am.
The jury of six men and six women took four days of deliberations to clear Tostee of the murder and manslaughter charges.
"Gasps were heard in the back of the courtroom where Tostee's family was sitting as the jury delivered their not guilty verdict about 3.20pm local time on Thursday," says reporter Kim Stephens. "Tostee himself appeared to show little emotion."
He left a free man, surrounded by a massive media scrum and cries of "Tostee's a pig" being shouted at him by passers-by, Stephens adds.
Warriena Wright fell to death 'trying to escape Tinder date'
11 October
A murder trial has heard the final moments of a woman's life before she fell 14 floors to her death during a first date.
Warriena Wright, 26, from New Zealand, died on 8 August 2014 after drinking in the apartment of Gable Tostee, who she met through dating app Tinder.
Tostee, 30, is accused of intimidating Wright so greatly she felt the only way to escape was to climb down from his balcony.
He has pleaded not guilty to murder at Brisbane Supreme Court and claims he locked her out on the balcony because she had attacked him, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
Their row was partly captured on Tostee's mobile phone and played to the jury today.
"You're lucky I haven't chucked you off my balcony, you goddamn psycho little bitch," he is heard saying. "I'm going to walk you out of this apartment just the way you are. You're not going to collect any belongings.
"If you try to pull anything I'll knock you out. I'll knock you the f*** out."
Wright shouts "no" over and over again and says: "I want to go home. I want to go home."
Around 15 seconds later, she is heard screaming as she plunges to her death.
Wright, who had been on a two-week holiday in Australia at the time, was found dead at the bottom of the apartment block.
Tostee's lawyer, Saul Holt, claimed she had become violent and started throwing decorative rocks at his client and hit him with a clamp from a telescope.
"What happened in this case is nothing like murder or manslaughter; it doesn't fit," he said. "She is outside, he is inside and he has caused a locked door to be between the two of them."
