opinion

"Gable Tostee is not guilty of killing anyone. But he is guilty of being a horrible human."

 

You are drunk. You are having a completely out of control, nonsensical argument with another extremely drunk person.

In the very recent past, you and this person were walking down the street together, talking. Then you were drinking together. Then you were having sex.

But now, everything has gone horribly wrong. Violence is in the air.

This, according to his own account, is exactly where 30-year-old Gable Tostee found himself back in 2014, when his Tinder hook-up with Warriena Wright took a turn.

On 60 Minutes last night, Tostee – who was acquitted of Wright’s murder and is, rightly, a free man – set the record straight, accepting a sizable sum to give his account of a notorious night.

Gable Tostee and Warriena Wright. Image supplied.

And it's true — he didn't murder 26-year-old Wright. But his actions that night prove he is certainly guilty of being a pretty awful human being. And his story forms a cautionary tale for many of us, whether we're sleeping with men or raising them.

Because back in the lounge room of Tostee's high-rise Surfers' Paradise apartment block, he treated her in a way that many of us wouldn't treat a dog.

Listen: The Mamamia Out Loud podcast discusses 60 Minutes' controversial interview with Tostee.

His "date" becomes violent, throwing stones from a decorative rock garden at him. He had the marks and the wounds to prove it. He says she lunged at him with the stand of his telescope, and he feared for his life.

Tostee recorded this whole encounter. Why? Because he had some experience of Tinder hook-ups and thought it was better to have a record of what goes down, especially after he and his date have been drinking his own home-made "moonshine" vodka.

ADVERTISEMENT

He tells Warriena that she's lucky he hasn't 'thrown her over the balcony' by now. She begs to go home, and he tells her she has been a 'bad girl'. Apparently, the front door was too far away for him to eject her, so he picks Wright up and shuts her out on the balcony of his 14th-floor apartment. He "put her out", like a dog.

"He tells her she's lucky that he hasn't 'thrown her over the balcony' by now." Image via Facebook.

Then, Warriena Wright falls. And Tostee does nothing.

Actually, he does do something. Within seconds, he is on the phone. Not to an ambulance, but to his lawyer (yes, the then 28-year-old had a lawyer).

Then he leaves, apparently sober enough to deliberately avoid the police and emergency services in front of his building, who have ascertained what Tostee knew without even looking over the balcony - Wright was dead. He leaves and wanders aimlessly around Surfers Paradise before eating a slice of pizza and calling his dad.

No, Gable Tostee did not kill Warriena Wright, but here's what he did do:

He cared so little about whether she lived or died that he didn't even cast a glance over the balcony after she disappeared from view.

He made absolutely no attempt to help her and he avoided the people who were trying.

Tostee wandered aimlessly around Surfers Paradise before eating a slice of pizza and calling his dad. Image via 60 Minutes.
ADVERTISEMENT

He gave absolutely no assistance to the people who were trying to find answers about why a young woman's life had ended on a Queensland pavement in the early hours of a Friday morning.

His concern was only for himself. His pity and fear was only for himself.

Not for the life of a young woman who, only hours before, he was so comfortable with he was shopping, talking, laughing and having sex with.

Not for her family, who have to live not only with the knowledge of what happened to their daughter, but listen to his self-pitying excuses for how and why she died, alone and terrified, at 26.

No. Gable Tostee is not a murderer. But he is a monster of a different kind: A narcissistic, privileged and thoughtless young fool.

And none of us, or our daughters, are safe with men like that.