Gable Tostee, the Gold Coast man who was charged with the murder of a Tinder date who fell from his Surfers Paradise balcony, has been found not guilty of murder by a Brisbane jury.
After four days of deliberation, the jury returned the verdict on Thursday afternoon in the Brisbane Supreme Court.
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Tostee's long walk to freedom
Gable Tostee battles a huge media pack after being found not guilty of murder but he refuses to answer questions. 7 News Queensland
He was also found not guilty of New Zealander Warriena Wright's manslaughter, which the jury had been left open to decide.
The jury had been deliberating as to whether Mr Tostee, 30, was guilty of the murder or manslaughter of Ms Wright in the early hours of August 8, 2014.
utside court, defence solicitor Nick Dore said his client was happy with the result.
Mr Dore said Mr Tostee thanked his supporters and looked forward to getting on with his life.
After the short statement, a huge media pack followed the free man out of court precinct, across the road and down the street for many metres.
Mr Tostee made no comment.
Deborah Taylor, from the Queensland Homicide Victims' Support Group, read a short statement outside the court on behalf of Ms Wright's family, saying the whole situation had been "incredibly traumatic".
"As you may appreciate, Warriena Wright's family are still coming to terms with the loss of their daughter and their sister, as well as enduring the anguish of being present here for these trial these last two weeks," she said.
Ms Taylor said the family had been quite overwhelmed by the media and requested privacy both now and on return to New Zealand to "pull the pieces of their own life back together again".
The jury reached its verdict before lunch, but the court was adjourned for lengthy legal argument as Justice John Byrne and the prosecution and defence discussed a series of Instagram posts made by one of the jurors throughout the trial.
At the start of the trial, all jurors had been instructed not to speak to anyone not on the jury about the case.
After thanking and discharging the jury, Justice Byrne said the incident was a "particularly disappointing" feature of the trial.
"That juror will discover when she accesses her Instagram account that many members of the public have commented on her decision to communicate to others during the course of the trial," he said.
"She may not welcome what members of the public have said."
Mr Tostee, 30, was accused of intimidating the 26-year-old during their August 2014 Tinder date so greatly that she thought the only way to escape was to climb from his 14th storey Gold Coast apartment.
There were gasps in the courtroom as the verdict was read out.
Homicide squad Detective Inspector Damien Hansen said Ms Wright's death would now be referred to the coroner.
Inspector Hansen acknowledged the Wright family for its "strength and courage" over the course of the proceedings.
"This was not a conventional homicide investigation. It was always acknowledged it'd be a very difficult investigation from the start," he said.
The six men and six women jurors had deliberated for more than a combined 12 hours since they retired on Monday.
The jury has asked a total of seven questions over three days.
Justice Byrne had told the jury earlier in the week to persevere to reach a unanimous verdict.
"Experience has shown juries can often agree if given enough time to consider and discuss the issues," he said.