Jail threat for Jock Fleming after sending vile messages to Outback Wrangler’s family

A man who admitted to a string of threatening messages that forced Matt Wright’s terrified wife and children out of their home has been ordered to stay away from the celebrity family or risk landing himself in jail.

A man who admitted to a string of threatening messages that forced Matt Wright’s terrified wife and children out of their home has been ordered to stay away from the celebrity family or risk landing himself in jail.

Jock Fleming, 28, admitted sending the Outback Wrangler star a text message saying “Death is coming for yewwwwwe …” in one of three offences committed against the TV personality and his wife Kaia since the chopper crash that killed Chris “Willow” Wilson and severely injured pilot Sebastian Robinson.

In response to 28-year-old Fleming being placed on a 12-month $1000 good behaviour bond and being told he can’t approach or contact the Wright family directly or indirectly, Kaia said she hoped the court action served as a message to “keyboard warriors”.

“No woman should be made to feel unsafe in their own home, especially with young kids there. Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident and we continue to receive horrible messages on social media,” Kaia said.

“If there’s one thing to come from this it’s that I want people to think about the women, families and kids on the other side of the message before they become keyboard warriors.”

Matt Wright’s wife Kaia, who has told of the torment of being threatened on social media, and their son Banjo. Picture: Charlie Bliss

In a victim impact statement read to Darwin Local Court this week, Kaia said the text message to her husband, along with comments and private messages on her social media from Fleming had left her feeling “progressively more and more unsafe”.

“The last message received from Jock was around the same time that vandalism attacks were being made to my family home and power box,” Kaia wrote, referring to a night her power box caught fire.

“The simultaneous nature of the threatening messages from Jock and the attacks on my home and power box led me to feel very uneasy,” she wrote.

“Even now, I am always on edge in public in case I run into him, not knowing what he may do. I wonder about what his frame of mind is, and worry that things might escalate.

“I’m pretty withdrawn now in Darwin because of the abuse we’ve received.

“Over time I’ve become a bit numb to online abuse and keyboard warriors but this is something else. I had to move from where I was living and I worried he knew that, and I ­spiralled at that point and am still struggling with feeling safe today.”

Jock Fleming as seen in social media posts

Police first took action over an incident on October 10, 2022, when Wright uploaded a post to his Instagram account announcing the death of one of his tour animals. Under the username Darwin Gecko, Fleming posted the comment: “With any luck you won’t be too far behind him.”

In November 2022, when Wright and Kaia announced the birth of their daughter on their Instagram profiles Fleming again “made an offensive comment on the post” under the Darwin Gecko user name.

Soon after, Wright was advised that there was a warrant for his arrest in relation to the helicopter accident in which Mr Wilson had died.

Wright is due to face trial later this year, accused of perverting the course of justice following the crash in February 2022.

Wilson, 34, plunged to his death in the NT bush while in a chopper owned by Wright.

On February 24, 2023 came the text message death threat, which police traced back to Fleming’s phone number.

The court was told Kaia relocated herself and her children to a different property due to increasing fears for their safety.

Matt Wright pictured with his wife Kaia and kids Banjo and Dusty. Picture: Charlie Bliss

She was “fearful for herself and her children, bolt-locked her doors and created barricades from the inside, slept with her children to protect them during the night, called her neighbour to request they keep their phone on loudspeaker and installed security cameras on the property”, police said in their statement of facts.

The day after the Australian Transport Safety Bureau released their findings on the helicopter crash on November 22 last year, Kaia received a private Instagram message from Fleming using the username Darwin_Gecko which partly said: “ … looks like matty made a booboo hope he has a few more crocodile tears to shed when he actually needs them”.

On Tuesday Fleming pleaded guilty to three counts of using a carriage service in a way that reasonable persons would regard, in all the circumstances as being menacing and harassing.

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