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Home / World

'Socially inept': Viewers slam Gable Tostee's 'despicable' paid interview

Daily Mail
14 Nov, 2016 06:06 AM7 mins to read

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Gable Tostee was acquitted of killing his New Zealand Tinder date Warriena Wright, who plunged to her death from his Surfers Paradise high-rise in August 2014. Video / Nine Network

Gable Tostee has been labelled a "walking timebomb", a "malignant narcissist" and a "psychopath" by social media users in the wake of his 60 Minutes interview.

In the paid, tell-all interview the 30-year-old carpet layer from the Gold Coast discussed the night New Zealand tourist Warriena Wright plunged from his 14th floor balcony to her death during a Tinder date.

Mr Tostee was in October acquitted of her murder and manslaughter, but it didn't stop people from unleashing their anger after the interview.

One Twitter user called him a psychopath, said he was 'dangerous to women' and that he should be 'locked up in a mental illness hospital'.

Gable Tostee. Photo / Supplied
Gable Tostee. Photo / Supplied
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Another called him a "f***ing dog", while one woman said he was a "walking timebomb" and an 'animal'.

He was also branded a 'despicable malignant narcissist'.

Others said he may have not been guilty, but was still "s****y, uncaring guy" and "socially inept".

Gable Tostee had attempted to explain why he recorded audio of the night and told his version of the night Wright died.

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He said he recorded audio of his date with her 'just in case'.

"The question isn't so much why I did that, but why wouldn't you," Tostee told Nine Network's 60 Minutes which aired on Sunday night.

"It's more of a just-in-case thing, because you're better off having something [recorded] and not needing it, than needing something and not having it.

"Just in case - well, you know, the thing that happened on August 8, 2014, is a perfect example."

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He had recorded about three hours of audio on his smart mobile phone, and it was played back to him through the interview.

His lips quivered as Warriena could be heard screaming 'no' 33 times and begging to go home.

"You're lucky I haven't chucked you off my balcony, you God damn psycho little b****," Tostee could be heard saying in the audio.

He said that was merely a "horribly unfortunate choice of words".

"I didn't intend it as a threat. I intended it as a figure of speech that she was lucky I was tolerant."

She had allegedly grown violent and he eventually 'bundled her up and carried her out the nearest door' in order to 'de-escalate' the situation.

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But Tostee could not detail how he restrained the 26-year-old.

"I can't remember exactly," Tostee said. "I don't remember exact hand positions."

He denied he choked Warriena at any point and said he used her size to force her out onto the balcony.

He is six foot three. Warriena was just five foot four.

Less than 30 seconds later, Warriena fell to her death and her final scream could be heard in the audio recording - but Tostee denied hearing it.

"I didn't hear her with my own ears," he said.

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"All I saw was her on the other side of the balcony, and then she vanished."

He said he could not have predicted she would climb over the balcony "to nothingness".

"There was no threat to her," he said.

"I didn't do anything to make her fear for her life."

Another 30 seconds later, Tostee tried to phone his lawyer. He did not call for an ambulance or look over the balcony but tried to work out the most "rational" response.

"Instinctively, I knew that if I ran out there and somebody saw me looking over the edge and she had actually fallen all the way, it would look like, you know, it would not look good," Tostee said in the interview.

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"Looking over the edge, you know, it doesn't help anybody. There's no purpose to it."

He said it would have been a "knee-jerk curiosity" to peer over the edge to check if Warriena was okay.

Tostee left the apartment building, exiting through its basement, six minutes later. He then went and had a slice of pizza and phoned his father before they got onto his lawyer.

He said he ordered the pizza to sober up.

Gable Tostee and Warriena Wright on the night she died. Photo / Supplied
Gable Tostee and Warriena Wright on the night she died. Photo / Supplied

"There was nothing happy, casual or indulgent about it."

In the interview, Tostee rejected the characterisation he was a "playboy", and said sleeping with 180 women 'is not really a surprising figure' nowadays.

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He described himself as a "pretty normal kind of guy" who is kind "to the people I care about," Tostee said.

Tostee's mother Helene said she believed he behaved appropriately. His father Gray said he believed the 30-year-old would have acted differently with the benefit of hindsight.

Tostee said despite how his actions appeared, he had been 'terrified' for Warriena.

"Of course I was worried for her," he said about the moments after she fell.

"I hate the last thing Warriena experienced was an argument.

"That was, that night, that was the most scared I've ever been. It's the most distraught I've ever been in my entire life."

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He is rumoured to have been paid $150,000 for the tell-all interview, the first time the public has heard his explanation.

He used his right not to testify during his trial.

Snippets of the interview had been aired in the lead-up to the program on Sunday night.

The clips had previously revealed Tostee was no longer on the dating app, Tinder, was "still traumatised" and had attempted to reach out Warriena's family.

He attempted to explain why he left his apartment building to eat pizza and called his father rather than phone triple-0.

"What happened, had happened - there was nothing an ambulance could do," Tostee said, a promotional video played earlier in the week revealed.

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"Nobody's trained for a situation like this. It's like being hit by lightning.

"There's no right or wrong to proceed from there."

He said he was 'still traumatised' and wanted to speak with Warriena's family and had put in a "formal request" through the Queensland Courts, but 'they weren't interested in anything he had to say'.

Tostee had locked the New Zealand tourist on his balcony when the pair fought while intoxicated on their date in August, 2014. Warriena climbed over the balcony in an apparent attempt to escape but plunged to her death.

Tostee pleaded not guilty and was cleared of murder and manslaughter last month.

He was criticised for using his right not to testify during the trial.

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The jury had deliberated for four days, and Tostee said they made the 'right decision' at the end of the day.

"It doesn't matter how innocent someone is," he said. 'There is no comfort in being on trial for murder.'

He was interviewed by Liam Bartlett, who earlier revealed Tostee wanted a chance to clear his name.

"I honestly believe for him now, a major motivator to go public, to actually front up full stop is his motivation that he recognises that a lot of people perceive him as a bit of a monster," he said.

"I'm sure he regrets the entire night, but I'm not certain whether that's more about his personal regret, or whether that regret hinges more on his personal future and less on what happened to her."

Bartlett said he was clearly an intelligent man but wasn't convinced of his "emotional intelligence".

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The journalist said he had been to the Gold Coast apartment and the balcony was so high you would want to be a "champion cirque du soleil" gymnast to attempt to climb down sober.

A snippet of the 60 Minutes interview had been released earlier in the week, and revealed Tostee maintains he was trying to stop Warriena from 'attacking him'.

"I don't know what else to do. I wanted it to stop," Tostee told Bartlett of the pair's altercation.

In an audio recording taken by Tostee, Wright can be heard yelling "no" more than 30 times, to which Tostee responds she was "certainly trying to make a lot of noise".

The interview had already incited social media backlash from viewers who criticised Channel Nine over the paid interview.

Tostee pleaded not guilty and was cleared of manslaughter and murder last month

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