Death fall at party for same sex marriage
A SENIOR and well-respected Australian diplomat was killed playing a bizarre “trust game” on top of a Manhattan building during a booze-fuelled party celebrating the same-sex marriage Yes vote.
New York police said Julian Simpson, 30, was attempting to settle a friend upset about him swinging the man’s wife in his arms on the roof of his swanky Lower East Side apartment building before he plunged to his death.
“I will prove that you can trust me,” police sources said Mr Simpson told his friend, James Waugh. As he leaned over the low metal fence encircling part of the seventh-storey roof terrace, Mr Simpson said: “Let’s play the trust game.” Mr Waugh told police he went to catch Mr Simpson, but was unable to stop him toppling over the edge and plunging six storeys to a terrace below, shortly after 1.35am Wednesday local time.
An NYPD spokesperson said Mr Simpson’s death was being treated as an accident.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop were among those to pay tribute yesterday to Australia’s second secretary to the United Nations. Mr Simpson and his wife were celebrating with a group of about 10 after dinner and drinks in Manhattan. They headed to the couple’s apartment for a nightcap.
Police said some members of the group were trying to see the Empire State Building, which was lit with rainbow colours to celebrate Australia’s embrace of same-sex marriage.
Mr Simpson led Mr Waugh’s wife to a higher ledge on the terrace and scared her by swinging her around.
Police said the group returned to Mr Simpson’s apartment, where Mr Waugh confronted him and said he was unhappy and suggested they “step outside”. Mr Simpson tried to convince Mr Waugh there was no danger, and suggested they play a “trust game.”
“They had been celebrating for quite a few hours,” a police source said.