Police errors hold up balcony fall hearing

A COMMITTAL hearing for the Queensland man charged with the murder of a New Zealand tourist on the Gold Coast has been delayed by police administration errors.

Gable Tostee, 29, is accused of killing Lower Hutt woman Warriena Tagpuno Wright, 26, who fell 14 floors to her death from his Surfers Paradise apartment early on August 8 last year, after they met on an online date.

Tostee has always maintained his innocence.

The hearing was place at Southport Court yesterday.

However, when prosecutor Kristy Johnson went to hand up a brief of evidence, magistrate Chris Callaghan said it had not been submitted correctly.

He said the material – which includes 30 witness statements regarding Tostee’s apartment and social media posts – needed to be submitted in full, instead of as an index to the files online.

‘‘I’m not in a position to hand up anything other than the index,’’ Johnson replied.

The case was October 15.

Prosecution witnesses did not take the stand, and Tostee’s lawyer, Nick Dore, told the court he did not want to conduct any crossexaminations during the committal process.

Meanwhile, a separate application to access evidence by the Nine Network will take place at a later date, with prosecutors needing to take instructions from police on whether the material is too sensitive to be published.

Tostee, dressed in a light blue shirt, grey pants and sporting a beard, did not comment as he entered the court building.

He sat quietly at the back of the courtroom on his mobile phone as he waited for the case to be called.

After the adjournment, Dore said:

Given the matter is before the court, I’d be reluctant to say anything further, other than the delay today is not attributable to Mr Tostee.

‘‘Mr Tostee is continuing to cooperate with the courts and wishes the matter to be dealt with as quickly as possible.’’ due to take Magistrates

adjourned

until

Gable Tostee and Warriena Wright

When asked how Tostee intended to plead, Dore said: ‘‘Let’s just wait until the 15th of October.’’

Tostee, also known as Eric Thomas, was freed on bail last year under strict conditions, but was forced to return to custody in New South Wales over unrelated driving offences.

He has been staying at his parents’ home since being paroled in August.

Since then his only public comments have been on social media, where he insisted he was not to blame for Wright’s death, and criticised police and the media over their handling of the case.

Police and Tostee’s lawyers agree that the bodybuilding enthusiast was not on the balcony when Wright fell. However, prosecutors claim she was in fear of her life and trying to flee him when their date turned violent.

The pair had met only hours earlier after connecting on dating app Tinder, before spending the evening drinking at Tostee’s apartment.

A 199-minute audio recording of the evening, taken from Tostee’s phone, is expected to be a key piece of evidence in the case.