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Rachel Smalley: No doubt Tostee was the perpetrator of Wright's fear

Author
Rachel Smalley,
Publish Date
Fri, 21 Oct 2016, 7:26AM
Gable Tostee (right) has been found not guilty of murdering Warriena Wright (left). Photo / Supplied.
Gable Tostee (right) has been found not guilty of murdering Warriena Wright (left). Photo / Supplied.

Rachel Smalley: No doubt Tostee was the perpetrator of Wright's fear

Author
Rachel Smalley,
Publish Date
Fri, 21 Oct 2016, 7:26AM

The murder trial of Gable Tostee - the Australian man who's been found not guilty of murdering Warriena Wright, the New Zealander he met on tinder.

The challenges this case threw up for the jury was evidenced by the fact it deliberated for four days.

Was he guilty of murder or manslaughter, the jury was asked? No, the jury decided, he wasn't.

Wright fell 14 stories to her death, attempting to escape Tostee's apartment.

The fact he recorded everything - there was a 199 minute audio recording that included Wright pleading with him to let her leave his apartment. And it captured her fading scream as she fell the 14 floors to the ground.

It included her saying "no" 33 times as he locked her outside on the balcony. It captured her throwing ornamental rocks at him, hitting him with something metallic. There were sounds of Wright choking - was Tostee strangling her, or was he attempting to defend himself? We will never know.

"Causation" was the central issue to this case.

What caused Wright's death? What led to her death?

What happened that prompted her to climb over a balcony to escape, believing she could reach the balcony on the 13th floor below? We will never know.

Wright, tragically, took those answers to her grave.

Clearly she was acting in fear and there can be no doubt that Tostee was the perpetrator of that fear. But the jury said that didn't make him a murderer, or guilty of manslaughter.

I would argue he's guilty of the reckless endangerment of life. And when he saw Wright climb over the balcony, the fact that he didn't intervene potentially means he failed to provide the necessaries of life too.

The law is different in Queensland.

If the jury believed he was guilty of committing grievous bodily harm, they could find him guilty of murder.

The law here differs. There needs to be intent to kill.

It has been an incredibly challenging case and there can be no winners.

Wright, unquestionably, was intimidated to such a degree that she tried to escape - and with fatal consequences.

Her family is left with so many questions, few answers, and no sense of justice. Their lives changed forever.

Tostee? He walks free.

The man who called himself a superhero on Facebook. He boasted of sleeping with hundreds of women, many who he'd met on tinder. He documented the women he'd slept with, often rating them. In one post he said, "Banged two girls tonight, the first one was a 4 out of 10. Not worth mentioning".

At best, Tostee was a social misfit. But the more we understand about his personality, the more he seems to fit the bill of a classic narcissist. He couldn't sustain a relationship. He lacked empathy. His focus was chiefly on himself, and his needs.

And ultimately now a young woman is dead. What killed her? Fear. She was, I think, frightened to her death.

But sadly that is not a crime in the eyes of the law.

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