WILL NEVER GO AWAY
Mr Porter and Ms AyliffeChung, who became friends months before her death while living and working in Surfers Paradise, were a week into an 88- day farm work stint to extend their visas when the drama unfolded.
Mr Porter could not find where the fatally injured Ms Ayliffe- Chung ended up as he ran around the hostel knocking on doors to warn others to lock themselves in.
Unable to find her, a frantic Mr Porter broke an ankle and shattered both heels in a leap from the hostel’s firstfloor balcony onto concrete.
The 22- year- old said despite “gruesome” scenes that give him regular nightmares he also felt lucky to be alive.
“It only affects me at nighttime. It’s hard to fall asleep – unless I have a drink and sort of pass out,” he said.
Mr Porter spent three weeks in a wheelchair after the incident and briefly returned to the UK for Ms Ayliffe- Chung’s funeral before returning to the Gold Coast.
Aside from his witness statement to police, Mr Porter has shared details of that terrifying night with few people other than Ms AyliffeChung’s sister Natasha.
“No one needs to know any of that – it was gruesome what I saw when I woke up,” he said.
Mr Porter said he had thought of Ms Ayliffe- Chung, a popular, well- travelled VIP nightclub waitress, daily in the 11 months since.
“She flicks through my mind every day – that night too. But some of it is good, I’ll go into a place here and think ‘ Oh, remember that’,” he said.
Mr Porter has since gone back to his job running pub crawls and bar promotions in Surfers Paradise.
Frenchman Smail Ayad has been charged with the murders of Ms Ayliffe- Chung and Mr Jackson, as well as two counts of attempted murder, animal cruelty and 12 counts of assaulting police.
He is being held in a mental health facility in Brisbane.