A man who was acquitted three years ago of killing a woman he met on a Tinder date has vowed to launch legal action against administrators of a Facebook group that brought the case back to public attention.
Gable Tostee was in 2016 found not guilty of the murder and manslaughter of New Zealand woman Warriena Wright.
She fell to her death in 2014 from the balcony of his Gold Coast apartment after an earlier altercation.
Mr Tostee, who has legally changed his name to Eric Thomas, is now back on Tinder under his new alias.
A screenshot of Mr Thomas’ new Tinder profile, accompanied by a warning, was shared by feminist Facebook group “Mad F***ing Witches” last week.
The post was then on-shared widely online.
"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 read.
The MFW Facebook post. Source: Facebook
On Friday, Mr Thomas said he planned to launch defamation action against people who had made disparaging comments about him on the Facebook page.
"I consider it to be, essentially, a hate/harassment campaign," he told ABC Radio.
"I was acquitted in a court of law and they don't know the facts.
“I should not be obliged to tell people I did nothing wrong."
The founder of “Mad F***ing Witches”, Jennie Hill, told ABC Radio the group "totally accept" Mr Thomas was acquitted, but “women deserve to know his background when they choose to go on Tinder.”
Mr Thomas, who said Ms Wright’s death represented the “worst night of [his] entire life”, said he “always intended to change [his] name because [he] didn’t like the old name”.
“It was a weird name, I always intended to change it and just happened to do that in early 2015,” he said.
Gable Tostee looks on before entering the Supreme Court in Brisbane, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016 Source: AAP
The “Mad F***ing Witches” group has also been contacting advertisers to try and get them to boycott the radio program of shock jock Alan Jones - because of sexist remarks he has made about women.
The group “started as a way to highlight the appalling sexism, misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia and xenophobia evident in Australia right now”, according to its Facebook page.
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