Outback Wrangler trial wildest moments: ‘You’ve been snorting cocaine out of Matt Wright’s arse?’
Coke on a boat, crocodiles, arse cracks, squealing and ‘nonsense’: Catch up on the craziest moments from the chopper crash conspiracy trial of Outback Wrangler Matt Wright.
An Aussie celebrity who made his name tackling crocs, buffaloes and snakes has provided a similar level of courtroom drama as his trial wrangles insurance, invoices and aviation law.
Outback Wrangler Matt Wright pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice, following the death of his mate Chris ‘Willow’ Wilson in a helicopter crash on February 28, 2022.
Across 13 days the jury has heard how the world of luxury high-end crocodile skin handbags and belts can be traced to the muddy swamps of the Territory, where workers fuelled on adrenaline dodge Wet Season storms and wild animals to collect eggs right from the predators’ nests.
The sole survivor of the crash, pilot Seb Robinson said everyone knew the danger, and yet he told investigators “it’s definitely enjoyable work”.
“You get to see some stuff that not many people get to see, different areas and be adventurous,” Mr Robinson said.
When they took off at sunrise that morning, the 28-year-old pilot said he believed he would be covered by either Mr Wright’s or the permit holder’s insurance.
Three years later, the paraplegic young man with a brain injury told the jury he was unable to access worker’s compensation as an independent contractor.
The ultimate cause of the crash is not in question in this trial, rather it has fallen into a competing tale of two pilots and their adherence to Australian aviation law.
It is alleged the Apple TV and Netflix star knew that the chopper taking off with his friends and employees, should never have left that morning.
Mr Wright allegedly had a history of dodgy record keeping, and it is believed the Robinson R-44 had overrun a strict 2200 hour maintenance requirement.
The TV star has denied this was a motive, instead accusing Mr Robinson and his family of diverting the blame at him to avoid scrutiny of the young pilot’s own bad behaviour.
If the thought of these young adventurers dangling themselves out of choppers to drop into crocodile-filled swamps wasn’t wild enough for you, strap in for the strangest moments of the Outback Wrangler’s trial.
‘SNIFFING TOO MUCH COKE OUT OF MATTY’ ARSE?’
Over four days of cross examination Mr Robinson was grilled over texts sent over an eight-year period where he occasionally supplied cocaine to his friends and footy players.
In one message exchange from 2020, Mr Robinson told a friend he was “crook as a dog”, with his mate replying “snorting too much coke out of Matty’s arse?”.
Mr Robinson said this friend also knew Mr Wright, with the reality TV star’s senior counsel David Edwardson interjecting that Mr Wright had “nothing to do with cocaine” and had a “zero tolerance” approach to drugs.
“Are you telling me you’ve been snorting cocaine out of Matt Wright’s arse?” Mr Edwardson continued.
“No, I’m just saying (he) obviously knows Matt,” Mr Robinson said.
Even Mr Wright started to laugh when the prosecutor Jason Gullaci asked the young pilot, point blank: “Have you ever on any occasion sniffed cocaine out of Mr Wright’s arse crack?”
“No,” Mr Robinson said.
“Would that be something that might excite you?
“Absolutely not,” Mr Robinson replied.
“The point I’m making is just because things were said doesn’t necessarily mean they all happened,” Mr Gullaci said.
The young former pilot agreed that a lot of these messages were just “banter”, and similarly he was just joking with mates when he texted about giving “a wristy” for $700 or “a blowjob” for cocaine.
The young pilot conceded that on some occasions when he provided drugs his mates paid him back for it, which Justice Alan Blow said constituted trafficking.
“I know I’m not a local, but in the Northern Territory I take it they don’t give away cocaine for free?,” Mr Gullaci asked.
“No, they don’t” a member of the public gallery responded, before Mr Robinson also confirmed the drug was not free in the NT.
COKE ON A BOAT
The jury has repeatedly heard the young pilot had trace amounts of cocaine in his system, allegedly from a party two nights before the crash.
Mr Robinson’s brother Zaccarie Chellingworth said he was also aware of his younger brother’s occasional cocaine use.
Despite the jury hearing Mr Wright had a “zero tolerance for cocaine”, Mr Chellingworth said he had seen his brother use the drug once before in 2016.
“It was my buck’s party on Matt Wright’s boat,” he said.
‘SOUNDS LIKE NONSENSE’
Mr Wright’s close friend and employee Tim Johnston acknowledged his own sworn evidence to the jury “sounds like nonsense”.
Prosecutor Jason Gullaci accused Mr Johnston of being “part of the plan” to cover up Mr Wright’s dodgy record keeping, by asking to take the young pilot’s aviation documents, logbook and phone.
Mr Johnston said he visited Mr Robinson in the intensive care unit days after the crash, and was instructed to pick up some “stuff” from the critically injured pilot.
He maintained it was Mr Wright’s friend Jai Tomlinson — rather than the celebrity himself — who asked for the items to be collected, and he never actually clarified what specifically he should pick up.
Mr Thomlinson denied he ever made this request, while Mr Gullaci said Mr Johnston’s claims were “nonsense”.
“It doesn’t make any sense that you would go to a hospital with someone so badly injured as Mr Robinson and just ask to pick up stuff and have no idea what it was?” Mr Gullaci said.
“It sounds like nonsense, yes,” Mr Johnston replied, “I’m just telling you what my account is.”
Mr Johnston said while he never touched Mr Robinson’s phone and immediately returned the diary, he was able to leave with what he assumed was a maintenance release.
He said when he returned to Darwin he gave the paper to Mr Wright.
Mr Johnston agreed while it was “logical” he would give the items to the person who requested them, he maintained the request came from Mr Tomlinson.
‘GET F**KED, GET VAXXED AND FLY YOUR OWN CHOPPER’
The jury sensationally heard the former Tourism Australia ambassador and Territory celebrity was an “anti-vaxxer” as of early 2022.
Indeed, pilot Sebastian Robinson said one of the reasons Mr Wright was not on that fateful egg collecting mission was because he could not go to remote areas in the NT while unvaccinated due to Covid restrictions at the time.
Mr Robinson said a month before the fatal crash he blew up at his boss over his anti-vaccination views.
The young pilot told the jury he, Mr Wilson and Michael Burbidge were on an crocodile egg collecting mission at the mouth of the Daly River on January 26, 2022 when “a mother of monsoon” appeared on the horizon.
Mr Robinson said he radioed Mr Burbidge to say “it was too dangerous to continue, because the storm was huge”, and they mutually agreed to head back into town for a “beer and a feed” and to watch the NT traditional Noonamah Australia Day “ute run”.
Mr Robinson alleged Mr Wright called him “very hostile and abusive”, telling the young pilot “What the f--k are youse doing back? Egg collecting’s not meant to be f--king easy”.
“I told him to get f--ked, get vaccinated and fly his own helicopter,” Mr Robinson said, causing scattered laughter in the public gallery.
The young pilot said this contributed to his decision to leave Mr Wright’s Helibrook, and he established his own company Arnhem Helicopters.
DICTIONARY DEBATES
The reality television star’s Queensland home was secretly bugged by investigators, recording private conversations between Mr Wright with his Instagram-famous wife and friend, Jai Tomlinson.
From the outset, prosecutor Jason Gullaci told the jury “the quality of these recordings is not great”, having laboriously gone through the recordings line by line with Mr Tomlinson.
Mr Gullaci alleged that on September 23, Mr Wright told his mate: “Now everyone’s f--king, now they are starting to put the pressure on everyone. You know, they will start squealing”.
“One person’s word against another,” Mr Tomlinson allegedly responded.
But before the jury, Mr Tomlinson said while he could make out the word “squealing”, he did not know what this word meant.
When asked to define “squeal”, the civil contractor said: “I’ve got two daughters and when they’re squealing there’s something happening”.
Mr Gullaci was sceptical the 45-year-old businessman did not know other informal uses of the word, dramatically pulling out his laptop to read the Cambridge and Macquarie definitions.
“You’ve never heard the concept of someone squealing, that is giving someone up, telling on someone, dobbing on someone? You’ve never heard it in that context in your life?” Mr Gullaci asked.
“Not to my knowledge,” Mr Tomlinson replied.
In that recording Mr Tomlinson also allegedly said “that f--king MR”, but rejected it definitely referred to a maintenance release.
“Do you want to Google search acronyms for MR?” he asked the prosecutor.
But when challenged to offer an alternative explanation, Mr Tomlinson said: “I don’t know”.
Mr Gullaci and Mr Tomlinson also clashed over whether he was bugged telling his mate ““Whatever boys, lawyer up boys” or “liner up boys”.
“What was being lined up? Are the boys going line dancing?” Mr Gullaci asked.
“I’m not going to — I don’t know. I don’t know,” Mr Tomlinson responded.
However he rejected it was even a “reasonable possibility” the pair of them were discussing the police investigation into the crash.
“That’s your words, but I don’t remember the conversation and what context it was in reference to,” Mr Tomlinson maintained.
CELEBRITY BUGGED
Secret recordings from what prosecutors claim were key pieces of evidence were often interrupted by domestic life of the Aussie celebrity.
Matt Wright smiled and laughed as a secret recording of him allegedly discussing the CASA investigation with his wife was interrupted by his child yelling: “Feed me, feed me pizza. Pew, pew, pew”.
Mr Wright was also recorded ripping a huge, belching burp in the middle of another bugged conversation.
The prosecution has finished giving evidence, and the jury will return on August 26.
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Originally published as Outback Wrangler trial wildest moments: ‘You’ve been snorting cocaine out of Matt Wright’s arse?’
