Since his acquittal last year for the murder of Warriena Wright, the man formerly known as Gable Tostee has been living with his parents on the Gold Coast, under the name Eric Thomas.
He has mostly avoided the media, save for a sit-down with 60 Minutes in the wake of his acquittal, but earlier today, News Corp published what may be the most extensive interview with him so far.
In it, Thomas talked about contacting Wright’s family to offer condolences – saying that it was “the first thing I wanted to do”, but he avoided it on the advice of lawyers – and about his new-found social media following.
Most significantly, Thomas spoke about the night of Wright’s death, which he refers to as “the apocalypse”, likening it to “something [out of] a horror film or one of those Final Destination kind of moments.”
Recordings from the night in question were played during the trial, and sounds of a struggle were heard between the two, after which Thomas put Wright on the balcony of his apartment and closed the door.
Wright later plunged 14 storeys to her death after climbing over the railing. When asked why he placed his date outside in the first place, Thomas, who has claimed that Wright attacked him, told the interviewer:
“Like I said, we don’t act with hindsight. You think, ‘Well, there is a door there that can separate the two of us.’ You’re being attacked. You think you’re doing the most sensible thing and you think that will just defuse the situation.
Something completely freakish, completely unexpected happens … It’s totally unforeseeable.”
When ask why he didn’t attempt to remove her via the front door instead, Thomas replied:
“A lot of people say that.
The front door wasn’t there. The balcony door was there. You don’t weigh up, ‘Well, is this person going to climb off a 14-floor balcony?’ That doesn’t occur to you.
When someone is attacking you and you’re trying to get them away from you, it doesn’t even come into the equation.
You think, ‘If I can just get the person away from me, figure out what to do next, call security or management or something to take her away properly.””“I mean, that’s more responsible than just shoving a drunk person out the front door to make a ruckus to the neighbours or possibly get herself in trouble or injured.
There is nothing inherently unsafe about a balcony, unless you climb over it … It’s just … there is nowhere to go.
It’s certain death. It just doesn’t make sense and you can drive yourself crazy wondering what was going through her mind but you never know. You just can’t know.”
Thinking back on the night, Thomas said: “It’s still surreal. It’s no less surreal. It’s one of those things you can’t really process. It’s one of those things that’s not supposed to happen.
But it is what it is and you’ve just to cope with the situation the best you can.”
As he recently told Kyle & Jackie O, Tostee is back on dating apps, but says he’s not as prolific as he was prior to his trial and acquittal:
“I’ve got an account but I’m not constantly wearing out my thumb on it. I’ve met a couple of girls since but it’s not like the good old days – I barely had a thumb left.”
Source: News Corp.
Photo: Facebook.
