A New Zealand tourist who plunged to her death from a 14th floor balcony pleaded with her Tinder date to allow her to go home, a court in Australia has heard.
The court was played a recording made by the murder accused, Gable Totee, of Warriena Wright, a New Zealand tourist who met him on the app, yelling “no, no, no” before she fell to her death.
The 26-year-old yelled “no” 33 times - before apparently being forced onto his fourteenth-floor balcony.
Her final words were: "Just let me go home. Just let me go home. Just let me go home. Just let me go home."
When she first issued the cry, Mr Totee responded: "I would, but you have been a bad girl."
The court heard he earlier told her: “You've worn out your welcome.”
The prosecutors are not alleging that Tostee had thrown or pushed Ms Wright but that he threatened her and left her with no other choice but to try to escape by climbing down from the locked balcony.
The accused has pleaded not guilty and denied strangling Ms Wright, insisting that he restrained her in self-defence.
The pair had made contact on Tinder six days before the incident and had agreed to meet at a surf shop in a busy nightclub district near Tostee’s apartment in Surfers Paradise, a popular beachside holiday destination.
They met at 8.45pm on February 7, 2014, and bought beer before returning to Tostee’s apartment. They took selfies on his phone and allegedly had sex before the incident occured in the early hours of Friday morning, February 8.
The jury has been hearing an edited version of a 199-minute audio recording of the encounter, which was found on Tostee’s phone.
He could be heard screaming: “You're not going to collect any belongings, you're just going to walk out.
"If you try to pull anything I'll knock you out, I'll knock you the f--- out - do you understand?"
At one point, Ms Wright asked to go to the window to look out. Tostee responded: "Don't jump off or anything."
Following Ms Wright’s fall to the driveway below, Tostee attempted to call his lawyer and then called his father.
“She kept beating me up and whatever," he could be heard telling his father in the audio recording.
"We had sex in bed and then after that she kept drinking… I think she might've jumped off ... there's like a million cops. I'm f---ed, I don't know what to do. I didn't cause this, I didn't push her or anything."
The trial in Brisbane continues.
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