Reality TV star Outback Wrangler Matt Wright sentenced to five months imprisonment over fatal chopper crash conspiracy
Outback Wrangler Matt Wright has been sentenced to prison for interfering in the chopper crash investigation in the wake of his co-star’s death. Read the high profile celebrities that backed the convicted star.
Aussie reality television star Matt Wright has been sentenced to prison after he interfered in a chopper crash investigation in the wake of his co-star’s death.
On Friday the Apple TV and Netflix star was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment, suspended after five months over his role in a conspiracy surrounding a fatal chopper crash in 2022.
NT Supreme Justice Alan Blow handed down his sentence three months after a jury found the 46-year-old guilty of two out of three counts of perverting the course of justice.
On count one he was fined $5000, and given a period of actual imprisonment for 10 months on the second conspiracy charge, suspended after five months.
In August the jury found Wright attempted to interfere with the investigation into the death of his friend, 34-year-old father Chris ‘Willow’ Wilson.
Mr Wilson was on a crocodile egg collecting mission in remote Arnhem land when the engine in a helicopter owned by Wright stopped mid-flight, likely due to fuel exhaustion on February 28, 2022.
The jury found Wright lied to police and then pressured now-paraplegic pilot, Seb Robinson, to doctor flight records following a helicopter crash.
Justice Blow said Wright had “reason to fear” the result of the investigation into the death of his friend, as the celebrity knew he had “unlawfully” underreported the chopper’s flight hours.
He said Wright had a pattern of failing to record flight hours at his helicopter business, Helibrook, in order to evade maintenance requirements totalling up to $460,000.
Prosecutor Jason Gullaci told Justice Alan Blow the Crown was seeking a term of actual imprisonment for the reality television star, as his defence pushed for a suspended sentence or a home detention order.
As Wright waited with his arms folded in the dock, the Supreme Court gallery was divided between the two factions, once described as being “thick as thieves”.
His Instagram-famous wife, Kaia Wright and their supporters sat to the right of the court gallery, closest to Wright, while Mr Robinson’s family gathered on the left.
There was silence as the verdict was handed down, and the celebrity walked into the court cells under the watch of security guards.
In sentencing submissions, Mr Gullaci said Wright’s attempt to obscure and obstruct the investigation was completely self interested, aiming to protect him and his company.
He emphasised the helicopter owner was not being charged for the cause of the crash, or the death and injuries to his friend and employees — rather his attempt to disguise the “systemic underreporting” of flight hours.
On the first conspiracy charge, the jury found Mr Wright lied to police about fuel levels in the chopper just days after Mr Wilson’s death.
In his statutory declaration to police on March 3, Wright stated he saw half a tank of fuel inside: “I didn’t have a torch and there was a – I could see a shimmer.”
Months later he was secretly recorded telling his wife Kaia Wright and mate Jai Tomlinson: “there was no f**king fuel”.
“He had run out of fuel. I’ll just say ‘he was a sh*t pilot’,” Wright said.
Defence instructing solicitor Luke Officer also laid the blame for the crash with Mr Robinson, who was at the helm of the chopper, had cocaine in his system from a party days earlier, and allegedly forgot to refuel the aircraft.
Mr Officer rejected the celebrity’s lies about the fuel levels were self-interested, saying “it was to protect his mate”.
Sensationally, Justice Blow ruled that he did not believe that the cause of the crash was a failure by Mr Robinson to refuel the chopper, as contended by Wright’s team.
Mr Gullaci conceded this first charge was on the “lower end” of the conspiracy charge, and was clearly “spontaneous” and born of “panic” following the traumatic crash.
However he said Wright’s actions over the 10 day period following Mr Wilson’s death “elevated” its seriousness.
The second charge found Wright pressured the sole survivor of the crash, Mr Robinson, to manipulate flight records.
The young man had only just woken from a coma, was told his friend was dead and he would never walk again, when the “antivaxxer” Wright visited his hospital room in March, 2022.
The jury found Wright pressured Mr Robinson to “move a few hours” from the crashed helicopter’s records to the 28-year-old’s personal chopper, but the injured pilot refused to do so.
Even after the guilty verdict, Wright’s defence team tried to argue his hospital visit was to ensure Robinson’s personal logbooks were up to date, and Wright was authorised to do so as the company’s Air Operator’s Certificate holder.
Mr Officer said viewed “in its proper context” this hospital visit to the paraplegic man was not “some nefarious” plot, and did not involve any threats, offer of bribes or gifts.
“It was a mere request, and when rebuffed, went no further,” he said.
But Mr Gullaci countered this was the “Diet Coke” version of events and an attempt to “run a defence that was rejected by the jury”.
“Lying in the hospital bed, days after the crash, where he was told he would never walk ... tidying up his hours is probably the furthest thing on his mind,” he said.
He accused Wright of “intimidating” his young employee, knowing there was an “implicit pressure” due to his celebrity status.
Justice Blow said the visit to the young man’s hospital bed was “the worst possible time to put any pressure on him” and said the celebrity had shown “no remorse” for his actions.
“You had the callousness to make and pursue this request as Mr Robinson had just woke from a coma,” he said.
Mr Gullaci highlighted perverting the course of justice carried a maximum penalty of 15 years of imprisonment, outlining five years of sentencing history which ranged from community corrections orders to years of imprisonment.
But Mr Officer questioned “how on earth” Wright could be compared to the more extreme conspiracy charges, which included a former NT Police Commissioner shielding his lover from scrutiny and a hit and run driver who dragged and buried his victim in a shallow grave.
He said any sentencing should start at the basis of a suspended sentence, or an intensive community corrections order including a home detention order.
Mr Officer said the Adelaide-born husband and father had “excellent prospects of rehabilitation” with a consistent history of work on cattle stations, before signing up to the Army.
He said he was 22 when he found the passion that would drive his career: flying choppers.
Mr Officer said Wright set up his tourism business, expanding his helicopter charter company to his multiple Territory resorts.
Justice Blow heard character references from a huge country music star, Lee Kernaghan, the ‘Crocodile King’ of the NT Michael Burns, and Tiwi Traditional Owner Brian Tipungwuti, while Mr Officer highlighted not only his wildlife and tourism advocacy but also that he had donated $122,000 to local community groups in 2018.
“I’ve been reading references in criminal proceedings for nearly 50 years, I think these are the most impressive I’ve ever seen,” Justice Blow said.
But Mr Officer said the impact of this three-year-long case had been “financially devastating”, having lost his pilot’s licence, the basis of his tourism business.
“He is holding it together just by the skin of his teeth,” Mr Officer said.
“He has to rebuild… but he’s not going to do that by sitting in a cell.”
Mr Officer highlighted the reputational damage to his client from “gutter journalism” and online gossip, but Mr Gullaci countered that Mr Robinson had also been the victim of “scuttlebutt” by the celebrity trying to paint him as a bad pilot and a drug addict.
The court heard that the future of the third perverting the course of justice charge would be determined by the prosecution after the appeal.
The August jury was ‘hopelessly deadlocked’ on an allegation a recording captured Wright telling his mate Jai Tomlinson to “just torch it” and “burn the c**t”, when talking about a document.
But Defence senior counsel David Edwardson has argued one would need “superhuman capabilities” to decipher this conversation.
Wright has indicated since his August verdict that he will appeal his sentence.
More to come.
Originally published as Reality TV star Outback Wrangler Matt Wright sentenced to five months imprisonment over fatal chopper crash conspiracy
