60 Minutes has paid, what is reportedly, a six figure sum to the man found not guilty of the murder or manslaughter of New Zealander Warriena Wright after battling it out with the opposition, Seven’s Sunday Night for the rights to pay Gable Tostee to tell his story.
60 Minutes has released a snippet of the interview in a teaser promo where the 30-year-old fidgets, stammers and looks uneasy as he is interviewed by journalist Liam Bartlett.
It is the first time we have heard what happened on the night Ms Wright died from the only person who was there. Tostee did not take the stand during his trial.
While Tostee has expressed his sympathy to the family of Warriena Wright, it seems the public aren’t happy with the 30-year-old profiting from her death with social media outrage over the money he has reportedly made.
The short snippet released doesn't show much. But it is enough to again make the public question exactly what happened that night, despite a jury already finding him innocent.
Sweating and stammering in the 60 Minutes promo Tostee says he was trying to stop Ms Wright from attacking him as she was 'a guest' in [his] home.
“I don't know what else to do. I wanted it to stop,” he says in the interview to air on November 13.
Tostee is shown listening to an audio clip of Ms Wright screaming “no”.
The graphic mobile phone recording, made by Tostee was a key part of the evidence in the trial.
“I want to go home. Just let me go home, “ Ms Wright was heard pleading on the audio.
“I would, but you've been a bad girl,” Tostee responds.
Tostee can be heard repeatedly telling Ms Wright to leave.
“I'm going to slam the door on you, you understand? If you try and pull anything I'll knock you out. I'll knock you the f*** out. Do you understand?' he can be heard saying on the tape."
Ms Wright can then be heard screaming 'no' more than 30 times. In the interview he is asked about this as he listens to her repeatedly screaming no, no, no, no, no.
Tostee tells 60 Minutes she was “certainly trying to make a lot of noise.”
“Can you understand why many people would think you’re a cold, heartless, cruel bastard?” Mr Bartlett asks Tostee
“When you put it that way, umm,” is the only part of the reply we hear.
Tostee never appeared on the stand in the case but in December 2014, he took to an online body building forum to explain what really occurred the night his 26-year-old Tinder date died.
He said in his post that he had intended on a “fun night with Warriena."
“My night with Warriena was intended to be relaxed and fun. She was on holidays and we decided to meet up for drinks after matching and chatting on Tinder. At first we got along great but as the night continued her behaviour became strange and she became increasingly aggressive.
“I’m not sure whether she found it amusing but it was getting out of hand," he wrote.
“She kept hitting me, taunting me, throwing my stuff around and trashing my apartment.
“For the last couple of hours with her most of my efforts were spent trying to placate her in the hope that she would calm down.
“I have always been happy to have girls stay overnight but eventually her behaviour became too overbearing and I decided I wanted her to leave.
“I tried to make her leave but instead of leaving she grabbed a nearby metal object and tried to swing it at me.”
Since the trial he has kept a low profile, only surfacing on social media last week when he appeared on the site of a milkshake cafe after drinking a mega shake.
However there is now anger in the community that Tostee has been apparently profiting from the death of the 28-year-old New Zealander.
One woman writing on Facebook: “There are 2 sides to every story.. The other party is unable to tell hers.. I do hope 60 minutes is providing her family a 6 figure sum for damages.. it was a date gone wrong.. he didn't treat her too well.”
While Lesley Leyton wrote: "How absolutely appalling of any television to pay for or even entertain the idea of airing this interview.”
The unconfirmed reports are that Tostee made six figures out of the deal, the Nine Network confirmed to The Guardian that the show has secured an interview with Tostee, but refused to discuss any financial arrangement.
Tostee's girlfriend Lizzi Evans has written on social media just a few weeks ago that Tostee was going to profit from the tragedy.
In a Facebook post Evans wrote: "He’s probably going to make a lot out of it actually."
On Twitter a call to boycott the program has begun.
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Top Comments
His life has been destroyed, too. He has been slandered and dragged through the mud. He deserves the right to clear his name and tell his truth. Also, he'd have huge legal bills, and since his reputation has been ruined, who will employ him now? The woman was drunk and physically attacking him, then she committed suicide. She destroyed two lives. Will the family of the dead woman compensate him? I don't think so. We need to stop assuming just because she is dead that she was a poor innocent sweet woman and that he has no right to recompense. His life was destroyed, too.
The media have already made alot of money out of his story, hence the repeats like this even after he was found innocent. Yet still he is being hunted by the same media that made them money.
He cannot simply grow a beard and find a job with attention like this focused on him. Even under his new name, he drank a milkshake in some rural place and it's now all over the news and being reported here and commentators are lapping it up. The court said he was innocent and he is expected to magically go out and find a job with no one noticing. What other options does he have here.
Obviously his only option is to go on national tv!
The damage has already been done. After all the social media publicity and news media articles already about this case and this person in particular, being on national TV really is a moot point.