NT Jury finds Outback Wrangler Matt Wright guilty of chopper crash conspiracy
Aussie reality television star Matt Wright has been found guilty of allegations he conspired to cover up details of the catastrophic chopper crash that killed his best mate.
An Aussie reality television star has been found guilty of allegations he conspired to cover up details of the catastrophic chopper crash that killed his best mate.
The Netflix and Apple TV reality star Matt Wright has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice following a chopper crash that killed his co-star Chris ‘Willow’ Wilson on February 28, 2022.
On Friday after six-hours of deliberation a Territory jury found Mr Wright guilty on two of the three counts.
Throughout the 16-day Supreme Court trial prosecutor Jason Gullaci has alleged that Mr Wright knew that the helicopter he sent his best mate and employees off in was “not airworthy”.
Mr Gullaci alleged Mr Wright had a “pattern” of failing to record flight hours at his helicopter business, Helibrook, in order to evade costly maintenance requirements.
It was alleged that the Robinson-R-44 that crashed into the crocodile-filled outback paperbark swamp had overflown a critical 2200-hour service requirement.
The reality television star was charged with three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
On the reality star’s 46th birthday on Friday, the jury returned their verdict finding the reality star lied to NT Police and attempted to manipulate flight records.
The jury found Mr Wright lied to NT Police and Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigators about fuel levels in the crashed chopper in his interview three days after the crash.
In his statutory declaration to police on March 3, Mr 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.”
Mr Gullaci said Mr Wright’s “true state of mind” was revealed months later in bugged conversations with his wife, Kaia, and mate Jai Tomlinson where he revealed “there was no f**king fuel”.
“I just looked at it then. F**k that, nuh, it just had no fuel,” Mr Wright said.
“He had run out of fuel. I’ll just say ‘he was a sh*t pilot’.”
“Yeah, work on his character,” Mt Tomlinson responded.
Mr Robinson showed the jury a photo of the fuel guage over the three-quarter mark, saying this showed they should have been able to make it from Noonamah to King River and back “a little bit”.
While he has no memory of the crash, the now paraplegic pilot emotionally told the jury: “just did not want to be blamed for running out of fuel when, in my heart, I know that didn’t happen”.
Mr Wright was also found guilty on the second charge which he pressured the sole survivor of the crash, Mr Robinson to manipulate flight records, moving hours from the 28-year-old’s personal helicopter.
Soon after the young man came out of his coma — where he discovered his friend was dead and he would never walk again — the “antivaxxer” Mr Wright and his Instagram famous wife visited his hospital room on March 11, despite strict Covid requirements in early 2022.
The jury found that Mr Wright asked Mr Robinson to “move a few hours” from the crashed helicopter’s records to the 28-year-old’s personal chopper.
Mr Robinson told the jury that Mr Wright also “asked to go through my phone and delete a few things”.
“It was a very hard time for me. I didn’t know who to trust and I panicked and went along with it,” he said.
Two days later his celebrity boss returned to his hospital room to again ask him to manipulate flight records, which he declined.
A secret mobile audio recording of this hospital visit also captured Mr Wright talking about the crashed chopper’s flight times over the phone.
The third charge alleged that in a bugged midnight conversation about the helicopter’s maintenance release, Mr Wright told his mate Jai Tomlinson to “just torch it” and “burn the c**t”.
In his closing address, prosecutor Jason Gullaci made admissions in his closings that the audio quality from the listening device “is not great”, while defence senior counsel David Edwardson argued that one would need “superhuman capabilities” to decipher this conversation.
Justice Alan Blow said the jury said they were “hopelessly deadlocked” on this final charge and were discharged on the decision.
It is understood that while a verdict was not delivered this charge remains active, but it is up to the Director of Public Prosecutions if they choose to pursue it at a later date.
As the first “guilty” verdict was read aloud, the Robinson-Chellingworth family let out a sigh of relief, while Chris ‘Willow’ Wilson’s widow Dani remained stoic in the front row of the courtroom gallery.
Mr Wright and his wife remained stone faced as the two verdicts were delivered, her emotions only breaking as he embraced her with a kiss and a hug.
After the verdict was read out, Mr Gullaci called for Mr Wright’s bail to be revoked, given the severity of the charges.
However Mr Edwardson said given the likely appeal process on both charges his client’s bail should remain in place.
“I don’t know how quickly the court of appeal and counsel will be able to line the planets up,” Justice Blow said.
“I think there’s a chance that the proceedings in the criminal court of appeal will not reach the judgement stage this year.”
“The circumstances are special enough to warrant the application of bail”
Mr Wright was released on appeal bail, with it enlarged on the same conditions until October 6.
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Originally published as NT Jury finds Outback Wrangler Matt Wright guilty of chopper crash conspiracy
