Outback Wrangler Matt Wright to file appeal over chopper crash conspiracy guilty verdicts
A celebrity crocodile wrangler convicted of attempting to cover up his dodgy bookkeeping in the wake of his mate’s death will launch his appeal within the next 48 hours.
A celebrity crocodile wrangler convicted of attempting to cover up his dodgy bookkeeping in the wake of his mate’s death will launch his appeal by the end of the week.
On Thursday lawyers for Outback Wrangler Matt Wright confirmed the reality television star was expected to file his appeal by Friday to throw out the two guilty verdicts for perverting the course of justice.
Following a 16-day trial in August, a NT Supreme Court jury ruled Mr Wright had lied to police and pressured a paraplegic pilot to manipulate flight records in the wake of the fatal helicopter crash that killed his co-star Chris ‘Willow’ Wilson on February 28, 2022.
The jury heard Wright had a “pattern” of failing to record flight hours at his helicopter business, Helibrook, in order to evade costly maintenance requirements, and knew the crashed helicopter was not airworthy.
Three weeks after the major verdict, Wright’s instructing solicitor Luke Officer confirmed he would contest his guilty verdicts on five separate grounds of appeal.
“The appeal is all but finessed to completion, and that will either be filed today or indeed tomorrow,” Mr Officer told Justice Alan Blow.
“I can confirm that an appeal against the conviction separate to the stated case will occur.”
This appeal is in addition to an attempt to overrule a decision made by Justice Blow, who ruled over an 11th hour ‘no case’ submission during the lengthy trial.
In arguments not before the jury, senior defence counsel David Edwardson argued the conspiracy charges should never have been brought and were being used as a “residual catch all, or an offence of last resort”.
Mr Edwardson also argued at its highest the evidence was “incapable of satisfying a jury beyond reasonable doubt”.
“One has to ask what is the course of justice which it is alleged that the accused intentionally attempted to pervert?”
However Prosecutor Jason Gullaci — and ultimately a jury of 12 Territorians — stated the lies to police and hospital visits to Mr Robinson were “course of conduct designed to cut the investigation off at its knees, and to stop Mr Wright being charged”.
“In some respects an attempt to pervert the course of justice is a bit like a manslaughter case, it can be committed in so many different ways that it’s really only limited by the human imagination,” Mr Gullaci said.
“I mean there really are endless possibilities. So to try and exhaustively define it is pointless.”
Justice Blow ruled on the no case application in August, concluding there was a case to answer as a “non-specific fear of a prosecution” against Mr Wright or his pilot could have motivated the “intention to pervert the course of justice”.
“It’s not necessary to identify any particular charge that the accused might have had in mind,” he said.
On Thursday, Mr Officer said Wright still believed his charges were brought under the wrong provisions and would take this legal argument before the Court of Appeal on October 7.
Mr Officer said any sentencing should be delayed until the appeal process was complete, because if they won Wight would be seeking for his charges to be thrown out.
“If we were successful on the conviction appeal — then crystal ball — we would say would not result in a retrial but otherwise an acquittal,” he said.
“Any term of imprisonment to be served, if there were to be one, is likely to be far less than the time taken arguing in the appeal.”
However, prosecution instructing solicitor Kate Thomas called for a date to be locked in, saying: “We would like to keep this on foot and dealt with as quickly as possible”.
Justice Blow agreed Wright’s sentencing hearing should be held “as soon as convenient”, extending the celebrity’s bail until his hearing on December 12.
Mr Officer said any sentencing submissions would be “fairly straight forward” and would only take two hours.
A legal representative for the NT Police Commissioner, Trevor Moses, also told the court the force was seeking costs for three subpoenas from Mr Wright.
