WARNING: Contains some graphic details of death. Reader discretion recommended.
The terrible injuries sustained by a woman who fell 14 floors to her death during a Tinder date have been detailed in court.
New Zealand tourist Warrienna Wright plummeted from Gable Tostee’s Gold Coast balcony hours after they met up via the dating app in August 2014.
Tostee did not throw Wright to her death but prosecutor Glen Cash told the jury sitting at Brisbane Supreme Court he intimidated and threatened her to an extent that she felt the only way to escape was to climb down from his balcony. Tostee denies murdering the 26-year-old.
On Thursday Gold Coast doctor Diane Little told the court Wright had suffered more than 80 injuries during her fall.
Dr Little said she was unable to determine Ms Wright’s height because “there was severe disruption to her body due to trauma,” News.com.au reports.
She said: “She had severe injuries to all of her body that caused her death.
“At the time she arrived in the mortuary her body was almost folded over on itself, her head was hyper-flexed down towards her trunk.
“There was a piece of her jeans caught in her skull fracture.”
Wright, who had spent the night with Tostee, during which they had been drinking and had sex, had a blood alcohol reading estimated to be 0.156, or more than three times the safe driving limit.
Tostee secretly recorded more than three hours of audio on his phone that evening. It captured an altercation between the pair, as well as the fall. Selfies taken on Tostee’s phone were also submitted to the jury, as were messages exchanged by the pair before they met.
Cash alleged that Tostee became angry after Wright threw ornamental rocks at him and hit him with a telescope. He also said that Tostee choked and restrained her before locking her out of his apartment on the balcony.
But Dr Little told the court she didn’t find injuries on Wright’s body that were consistent with strangulation.
“When I examined the neck internally, I couldn’t find any injury to the muscles or structure beneath the skin on the neck,” she said.
“You’re lucky I haven’t chucked you off my balcony you goddamned psycho bitch,” Tostee is heard saying in the recording. “If you try to pull anything, I’ll knock you out, I’ll knock you the fuck out, do you understand?”
The jury was told a neighbor heard Wright crying, “No, no, no, please let me go home,” before witnessing her falling from the balcony about 15 seconds later.
Defense lawyer Saul Holt said Wright had become increasingly erratic and aggressive toward Tostee after a night of drinking and intimacy.
“What happened in this case is nothing like murder or manslaughter. It doesn’t fit,” Holt said.
The jury was also shown pictures of injuries which Tostee claims were inflicted by Wright, including scratches and grazes, ABC.net reports.
A forensic officer told the court she could not put a timeline on when the injuries occurred, or if they were inflicted by Wright.
CCTV was also produced showing Tostee wandering around Surfers Paradise for more than an hour after Wright fell.
At one point the 30-year-old visited a Dominos Pizza parlour and ordered a slice, pausing to eat it.
He was then collected by his father, whom he had phoned and told: “I swear to god I didn’t push her, I just chucked her out on the balcony because she was beating me up.”