Diplomat’s fatal fall in game gone wrong

An Australian diplomat who died after falling from a New York balcony is being remembered as a fine young man who was exceptional at his job.

Julian Simpson, 30, died after falling from the seventh floor of a Lower East Side building.

The New York Post reported police sources as saying Simpson was playing a “trust” game on the rooftop deck of the building when the accident happened. “I will prove it that you can trust me. Let’s play the trust game,” Simpson reportedly said to a 24-year-old man moments before he slipped and fell.

Simpson, the second secretary to the United Nations for Australia, worked alongside Labor senator Lisa Singh while she was on secondment at the UN for three months in 2016. “Julian was my minder, my staffer. He . . . did an exceptional job at that. He was a very fine young man, a very fine young diplomat.”

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop also received support from Simpson while abroad. “Julian was a diligent, professional and highly skilled diplomat.”

Simpson had been out with his wife and friends before they returned home to admire the view of the Empire State Building, which was lit up in rainbow colours to celebrate Australia’s gay marriage vote. While on the roof, the diplomat had climbed to a higher roof landing where he began swinging a female friend around, sources said. Once he put her down, everyone decided to go back inside.

The 24-year-old man, who is the husband of the woman Simpson had been swinging, confronted Simpson over the gesture, sources said. The two men then stepped back outside, where Simpson told the husband that he meant no harm.

To prove to the husband that he could trust him, Simpson suggested playing the “trust game” — in which Simpson would lean back on the ledge and trust the man to catch him before he would fall. Simpson reportedly climbed onto the ledge and began to lean back.

The man told investigators that he put his arm out to catch him, but Simpson slipped and fell to his death.