Ex-NT cop Neil Mellon guilty of destroying fatal Chris Wilson chopper crash phone evidence

Neil Mellon also faces unrelated charges including possessing a prohibited weapon, stealing and obtaining benefit by deception which prosecutors said were ‘very close to resolution’.

A former high-ranking NT Police officer caught up in an alleged criminal conspiracy following the death of Netflix star Chris “Willow” Wilson has pleaded guilty to destroying evidence.

One-time acting Senior Sergeant Neil Mellon faced the Darwin Local Court on Thursday where he formally admitted to destroying a mobile phone on the day Mr Wilson was killed in a chopper crash during an ill-fated crocodile egg collecting trip in February last year.

Through his plea, Mellon agreed he knew the phone might be required in a court proceeding and destroyed it so it could not be used in evidence.

Two other charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice and making a false declaration were withdrawn by prosecutors.

The details of Mellon’s offending were suppressed from publication after Mellon’s co-accused and Mr Wilson’s TV co-star Matt Wright was committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court for allegedly attempting to pervert the course of justice in the wake of the crash.

Mellon also faces unrelated charges including possessing a prohibited weapon, stealing, unlawfully accessing data and obtaining benefit by deception which Mr Ledek said were “very close to resolution”.

Neil Mellon arrives at the Darwin Local Court on Thursday. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“There’s been substantial representations made in August and now most recently, ahead of today’s date, where the parties are working towards a resolution across that tranche of charges,” he said.

“While we are negotiating the terms that a plea might look like on that particular file, knowing your honour’s practice is not to have it sitting languishing in the mention stream, were asking that it be placed in to the directions hearing stream.”

Mellon will return to court in March next year when Mr Ledek said he could potentially be sentenced across all the remaining charges.

“We anticipate that there is material that my learned friend will need to obtain on the plea and there are likewise things that the Crown will be seeking to ascertain,” he said.

“There is a hope that there will be a global resolution across both files and that the interests of totality can be served in an overall sentence.”

Originally published as Ex-NT cop Neil Mellon guilty of destroying fatal Chris Wilson chopper crash phone evidence