Gable Tostee murder trial: Jury hears last chilling moments of Warriena Wright’s life
THE last photos of Warriena Wright before she plunged to her death have been tendered to the Brisbane Supreme Court.
THEY could have been any happy young couple on a Tinder date.
Six selfies tendered to the Brisbane Supreme Court on Tuesday showed a smiling Warriena Wright and a shirtless Gable Tostee inside his Gold Coast apartment and gave no hint of the tragic events that were about to unfold in the early hours of August 8, 2014.
They were the last pictures taken of Ms Wright before she plunged to her death from Tostee’s 14th floor balcony.
The 30-year-old carpet layer has pleaded not guilty to Ms Wright’s murder.
Police seized the photos from a camera owned by Tostee that was located inside his apartment.
A witness told the court he witnessed the horror of Ms Wright’s death plunge after being alerted by her scream for help.
From his balcony on the 12th floor, Nick Casey looked up to see Ms Wright hanging over Tostee’s balcony, and tried to yell to her to climb back over.
“I heard her say, ‘I want to go home’, I heard her say, ‘help’ and at that point I said to her, ‘go back inside’ and it wasn’t long after that she fell,” he said.
“She fell straight past where I was standing on the balcony and ricocheted off a few balconies below us and kept going to the ground.”
The images were tendered after the jury in Tostee’s murder trial heard audio recordings the accused made which revealed Ms Wright’s terrified screams.
Tostee can be heard breathing heavily after Ms Wright disappears from his Gold Coast balcony.
He can also be heard attempting to make a phone call that goes unanswered.
He then apparently leaves the apartment building and calls his father, Gray, to come and pick him up.
“Hello Dad, I might have a bit of a situation,” he says.
After explaining what happened, he goes on, “She kept beating me up and whatever and, um, I locked her out on the balcony and I think she might have jumped off.
“There’s a million cops around my building, I’m f***ed.
“I don’t know what to do.
“I didn’t cause this, I didn’t push her or anything.
“I’m just walking around the area and there’s a million cops around the area.”
Tostee sounds calm throughout the conversation with his father.
When the elder Tostee comes to collect him, he asks if he needs to go to hospital.
“Why,” his son asks.
“Well, it’s traumatic,” he responds.
Tostee explains to his father that he and Ms Wright had watched a movie and had sex throughout the course of the evening but that she drank heavily.
“The last thing I remember is trying to hold her down and she ran out onto the balcony. I hope I just imagined it,” he says.
“I might have locked her on the balcony ... I absolutely did not throw her off my balcony. I would never do anything like that.”
Despite the police presence around his apartment building, Tostee apparently did not yet know Ms Wright had died.
“God, I hope she’s not dead,” he says. “What if she’s dead? What if she jumped?”
His father replied, “Don’t worry. There’s nothing you can do about that.”
“This is so f***ed up. Why has this happened to me,” he asks.
As he continually attempts to call his lawyer, Tostee can be heard fearing he does not have proof he did not push Ms Wright off his balcony.
“I do have photos of me and her, like, selfies. But I don’t know if I have any proof of her being aggressive,” he says.
“The truth comes out,” his father replies. “It will.”
The jury in the murder trial earlier heard the last chilling moments of Ms Wright’s life, as the accused killer allegedly locked her on his balcony after she was growing increasingly aggressive.
“No, no, no, no, no. I want to go home. Just let me go home,” she is heard saying on the audio.
“I would, but you’ve been a bad girl,” he replies.
Ms Wright’s screams pierced the courtroom, as she appeared to be begging for her life.
Tostee can be heard asking a slurring Ms Wright to leave his apartment, in an increasingly threatening tone.
“You goddamn psycho bitch. I’m going to let you go, I’m going to walk you out of this apartment, just the way you are,” he says.
“You’re not going to collect any belongings. I’ll slam the door on you. You’re not going to pull anything or I’ll knock you the f*** out.”
A muffled scuffle ensues between the pair, in which Ms Wright repeatedly cries, “no, no, no no” and “I want to go home. Just let me go home.”
The noise is silenced by the sound of a sliding door, which fits with the Crown’s contention that Tostee locked her on his 14th floor balcony.
Within moments, the 26-year-old had fallen to her death.
The prosecution alleges the 26-year-old was fleeing in terror from Tostee when she attempted to climb over this balcony to the one below.
Hairdresser Emily Ellis also watched from the 12th floor balcony as Ms Wright fell.
“She was in a hanging position but ... I wasn’t able to make out what she was doing,” she said
“I said (to another person in the apartment) I couldn’t work out what she was doing, I said I don’t know what she’s doing and she fell.”
The trial continues before Justice John Byrne.
Yesterday the first part of the explosive audio recording was played in court, capturing Ms Wright’s final hours in Tostee’s Gold Coast apartment.
It revealed the New Zealander was drunk, at times incomprehensible and repeatedly violent to the man charged with her murder.
“I’ve met some weird people on Tinder,” the 30-year-old murder accused was heard to say, as the drunk Ms Wright apparently swings in and out of violent episodes towards him.
The trial, before Justice John Byrne, is continuing.