Gable Tostee — the Gold Coast man acquitted of the murder of Tinder date Warriena Wright in 2014 — has been banned from a casino for allegedly strangling a woman in a hotel room, an incident in which no charges were laid. Tostee, who now goes by the name Eric Thomas, is challenging the ruling after claiming that he is the victim of gender discrimination.
In 2022, security was called to investigate a disturbance in a hotel room at The Star Gold Coast’s Grand Hotel. According to The Courier Mail, security allegedly found Thomas on top of a woman lying on her back with her dress pushed up over her hips. The woman alleged that Thomas had strangled her.
Thomas was taken to Southport watchhouse while police reviewed the evidence. However, Thomas was not charged with any crime.
Following the incident, Star Entertainment (the company which owns The Star Hotel and casinos) banned Thomas from any of its casinos and withdrew his membership by sending him a withdrawal-of-licence notice in May 2022.
In November 2022, Thomas made a request for his ban to be lifted. After security team members became aware of his former name and the allegations he was acquitted of, Star Entertainment refused to lift the ban.
Now, Thomas has reportedly sought for the ban to be lifted via an application to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal in which he claimed that he was discriminated against on gender. He also claimed that being banned from the venues has caused him “psychological and social harm”.
However, per The Courier Mail, Star Entertainment claims that the ban is to do with the “very real prospect that Mr Thomas could engage in broader behaviours that might cause The Star adverse publicity”.
Thomas is due to appear in a Brisbane court for a two-day directions hearing (a final hearing of a matter) on November 17 and 18.
In 2019, Thomas spoke out with another discrimination claim after a user in a Facebook group called Mad Fucking Witches posted screenshots of his Tinder profile with his new legal name alongside information about his past.
“He was acquitted of her murder, but we believe witches would want to know the identity of such a man before deciding to date him. And yes, Tostee met Wright on Tinder,” the post said, per the ABC.
“I consider it to be, essentially, a hate/harassment campaign. I was acquitted in a court of law and they don’t know the facts. Ethically, I should not be obliged to tell people I did nothing wrong,” he told ABC Radio Melbourne’s Mornings program at the time.
In 2016, Thomas was acquitted of the murder and manslaughter of 26-year-old New Zealand woman, Warriena Wright, after she fell from a 14th-storey balcony at the Avalon Riverside Apartments in 2014. In a nine-day trial, the court heard that the pair met on Tinder and had been partying before they began arguing.
The court heard a chilling 199-minute recording taken by Thomas of their argument, along with Wright screaming. You can find a comprehensive explainer on the case and why Thomas was acquitted HERE.
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