Gable Tostee: Accused murderer makes offers to stop using Tinder and stop drinking alcohol to try and secure bail
ACCUSED Gold Coast killer Gable Tostee will have to wait until Wednesday to learn whether he gets bail.
The self-confessed playboy has offered to ban himself from controversial dating app Tinder, stop drinking and live with his parents in a bid for freedom.
But Supreme Court judge Debra Mullins adjourned a decision on the bail application until tomorrow morning.
Tostee had been behind bars charged with murder since August 15, a week after young New Zealand tourist Warriena Wright plunged to her death from his 14th-floor high rise unit in Surfers Paradise.
The pair had met on Tinder and Ms Wright’s death allegedly came after a night of drinking and violent sex.
Police who seized phone recordings of the three hours leading up to Ms Wright’s death have alleged Tostee choked Ms Wright, locked her on the balcony and told her he would not let her leave because she had been “a bad girl”.
He was charged with murder based on precedent cases where people in fear of their lives have died trying to flee.
A previous Supreme Court bail application was adjourned in September and reactivated today after Tostee changed lawyers.
Opposing bail, Director of Public Prosecutions barrister Benedict Power told the court Tostee had committed a life-threatening act by “shoving” Ms Wright onto his balcony and locking her out.
Mr Power said Ms Wright had “no sensible route of escape” and was pleading with Tostee to let her go.
The barrister likened it to placing a person in a locked trunk “in which they suffocate”.
Defence barrister Soraya Ryan QC said Tostee did not know what Ms Wright was going to do when he locked her out.
Ms Ryan said Ms Wright may have been “scared fiercely” that she was going to be thrown off the balcony but that threat was not realised.
She told the court Tostee’s focus was to clear his name and questioned how he could flee when his photo was “all over the media”.
“Where does he go? How does he live?” she said.
Ms Ryan said Tostee could be in protective custody for up to three years before he went to trial.
She said Tostee’s parents Gray and Helene, who were in court, were supporting him “in this extremely difficult time”.
Mr and Mrs Tostee had offered a surety to ensure their son would not flee and he would live with them.
Mr Power said Tostee’s stated desire to clear his name was at odds with his “bizarre indifference” to Ms Wright’s “abject terror” and the steps he took after her death to evade police.
Justice Debra Mullins questioned why Tostee appeared to have shown “no remorse” for Ms Wright’s death.
She said it was “not in any way a straightforward case of murder”.
Justice Mullins also it was an “unusual” case because both the police and defence were relying on Tostee’s mobile phone recording.
Outside court, Tostee’s lawyer Terry O’Gorman slammed media reporting of the case.
“The media should stop their outrageous description of Mr Tostee as ‘the balcony killer’,” he told reporters.
“Her Honour (Justice Mullins) has said that this is not a straightforward case of murder.
“It is only if and when a jury convicts him that the media can and should refer to him as a killer. Stop misusing your considerable powers in the community and report responsibly so as to give this man an opportunity of a fair trial. Stop engaging in this tactic of trying to poison the jury pool.”
