Gable Tostee on trial for alleged Gold Coast balcony murder of Warriena Wright
THE resident of the apartment under Gable Tostee’s told of hearing a woman’s panicked cries of, “No, no, no” shortly before Warriena Wright fell to her death.
THE resident of the apartment under Gable Tostee’s told of hearing a woman’s panicked cries of, “No, no, no” shortly before Warriena Wright fell to her death from his 14th floor balcony.
Tostee, 30, is on trial for the murder of the New Zealand tourist in August, 2014.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Gabriella Collyer, a resident of the Gold Coast’s Avalon Apartments, told the Brisbane Supreme Court she heard noises she likened to furniture being thrown around in the apartment above her about 2am on August 8, 2014.
The noise, and the woman’s cries, woke her and she went to her balcony to investigate.
“She was just screaming no, no, no,” Ms Collyer told the court.
“I opened the door and looked up and these legs were in the air and I froze and the body fell onto the railing of my balcony.”
Ms Collyer was giving evidence on the first day of the trial of Gable Tostee, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Wright.
The 26-year-old New Zealander plunged to her death from his 14th storey apartment, while she was in Australia on holiday.
She had spent the evening drinking with Tostee in his Surfers Paradise apartment after they matched on dating app Tinder.
Ms Collyer testified that prior to the fall, she could hear what sounded like a man and woman fighting in the apartment above.
She could hear Ms Wright’s voice as she pleaded with Tostee but could only hear his muffled replies.
“I was woken around 2am ... It was a noise like furniture banging then another loud noise, something falling down to the ground, then I heard a female voice screaming, ‘No,’ in panic,” she said.
“Then I heard a male noise but I couldn’t understand.”
When she went to investigate, she opened her balcony door to see Ms Wright’s legs dangling over from the balcony above.
She soon lost her grip.
“The person fell ... I screamed and somebody else screamed,” she said.
“I rang Triple-0 and stepped forward (to look over) and she was laying on the ground.”
When a police officer in safety harness reconstructed the scene the following day, Ms Collyer said she found it too distressing.
“A female police officer positioned herself with her legs hanging down and I screamed and ran away,” she said.
The court heard Tostee was acting in self-defence when he locked Wright on his Gold Coast balcony, moments before she plunged to her death.
The pair met on dating app Tinder just hours before Ms Wright died. Tinder conversations between the pair have been tendered in evidence on the first day of the trial.
In opening submission Monday, Crown Prosecutor Glenn Cash said it was not alleged that Tostee pushed or threw Ms Wright to her death in the early hours of August 8 but that he had locked her out on his balcony after a fight between the pair.
He said it was the Crown’s contention that he had threatened and intimidated the 26-year-old to the point that she felt she had no other choice but to escape his apartment by climbing over the balcony to another floor.
He told the court women in the two apartments below Tostee’s had both been drawn out onto their own balconies by the loud fighting between the pair, and watched in horror as Ms Wright fell past them and to her death on the ground below.
The woman in the apartment directly beneath Tostee’s said the young New Zealander clipped her own balcony as she fell.
“She was locked on the balcony with no other means of escape,” Mr Cash said. “Warriena thought her only means of escape was by attempting to climb down.
“It doesn’t matter he was inside ... he bears responsibility for causing her death as much as if he had pushed or thrown her off the balcony.
“He has, by threat and intimidation ... caused her death.”
But Tostee’s lawyer, high profile barrister Saul Holt, QC, told the court his client had asked Ms Wright to leave and locked her out on his balcony in self-defence.
“What occurred in this place is nothing like murder or manslaughter, it just doesn’t fit,” Mr Holt said. “These charges just don’t make sense.
“We’re allowed to use reasonable force to protect our home and protect our lives and it will be our ultimate submission that’s what happened here.”
Mr Cash said an audio recording Tostee secretly made inside the apartment in the three hours leading up to Ms Wright’s death, in which the pair can be heard arguing and physically fighting, will be a key piece of evidence.
Tostee’s phone was still recording when he left the apartment after Ms Wright’s fatal fall and called his father, Mr Cash told the court.
In it, he admitted the pair had fought physically and that she had fallen over his balcony.
“I was all right at first, we, you know, had sex in bed and after that she kept drinking ... She kept beating me up ... I forced her out onto the balcony and I think she might have jumped off,” Tostee allegedly told his father.
“She was saying, ‘I know Muay Thai, I’ll beat you up for fun’.
“I tried to hold her down and she ran out onto my balcony and the last thing I remember was she kept hitting me for some reason and I just like tackled her down on the ground inside the apartment.”
He is then alleged to have locked her outside.
The explosive audio recording is also alleged to have captured Tostee threatening Ms Wright, and restraining her, evidenced by her muffled voice.
He is alleged to have said to her at some point, “You’re lucky I haven’t chucked you off my balcony you ... Psycho little bitch”, however, that it is not contended that constitutes some intent to kill her, Mr Cash said.
In other parts of the recording, the prosecutor said he is heard to tell his Tinder date, “You’re going to leave ... I’m going to slam the door on you.
“If you try to pull anything I’ll knock you out, I’ll knock you the f*** out. Do you understand? Do you understand?”
The trial, before Justice John Byrne, continues.
HE's here. Gable Tostee arrives at court, 25 minutes before his murder trial is due to begin @newscomauHQ pic.twitter.com/4bt5ZoXc4z
— Kim Stephens (@kimbo_stephens) October 9, 2016
Prior to his arrival, the New Zealand-based mother and sister of Ms Wright, known as Rrie, also arrived.
The lives of Ms Wright and Tostee crossed paths for only a few short hours in August 2014.
But their names will forever be inextricably linked — and perhaps never more so than this week.
More than two years after Ms Wright plunged to her death from the balcony of Tostee’s 14th floor Gold Coast apartment, he will today go on trial for her murder in the Brisbane Supreme Court.
Ms Wright was in Queensland for a friend’s wedding in 2014, when her path fatefully crossed that of Tostee’s.
The young New Zealander framed a two-week Queensland holiday around the occasion and travelled to the Gold Coast, just before she was to return home.
Tragically, she never made it after she matched with Tostee on the mobile dating app Tinder.
The pair met outside a surf shop in the Surfers Paradise nightclub precinct of Cavill Mall on the evening of August 7 and returned to the nearby Avalon apartments, where Tostee lived alone in an apartment on the 14th floor.
Within hours, the 26-year-old New Zealander had fallen to her death.
What went on in that apartment in those few hours will be the focus for the jury in this week’s trial.
For the two years since her daughter fell to her death, Merzabeth Tagpuno has been building up to this moment.
Ms Wright’s grieving mother has had a long time to reflect on the 26 years of her eldest daughter’s short life.
In tributes on her Facebook page, the Philippines-born New Zealander has relived the precious moments of Warriena’s life and shared intimate family photographs.
In her native Tagalog, Ms Tagpuno revealed that she would make the journey to Brisbane with Warriena’s father and sister Reza to attend Tostee’s trial.
The trial is set to be one of the highest profile in Queensland this year, with Ms Wright’s death — and the subsequent revelation of the Tinder link — drawing attention from Australia and abroad at the time.
Crown prosecutors intend to call 22 witnesses, meaning the trial is unlikely to run for more than two weeks
It is not yet known if Tostee plans to take the stand to defend himself against the murder charge.
The 30-year-old has enlisted high profile QC Saul Holt as his defence lawyer.
One of Queensland’s most experienced Supreme Court judges, Justice John Byrne, will preside over the case.
— With Candace Sutton