Trial hears new evidence about cocaine deals from pilot
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Advertiser
5 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Trial lays bare cowboy chopper ops in croc country
The much-anticipated trial of reality TV star Matt Wright has laid bare the cowboy world of Top End helicopter-flying in crocodile country. The Outback Wrangler star has pleaded not guilty to three charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice. The charges follow a helicopter crash in February 2022 that killed Wright's friend and co-star Chris "Willow" Wilson on a crocodile-egg collecting mission in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. Pilot Sebastian Robinson, who was left a paraplegic after the crash, has endured three days of tough questioning in the Supreme Court in Darwin by video link from his wheelchair. Wright's lawyers have painted Mr Robinson as a cocaine-using "party animal" who constantly broke aviation rules, including disconnecting flying-hour meters. But the jury has heard that Wright also disconnected meters and falsified maintenance releases and pilot logbooks to match, and told his pilots to do so. Such practices were commonplace across the helicopter industry in the territory, jurors have been told. Wright also allegedly allowed Mr Wilson, a trainee pilot, to take the controls of helicopters with pilots who were not trained instructors, in a breach of aviation regulations. Prosecutors allege Wright was worried after the crash that investigators would learn his choppers' meters were regularly disconnected to extend flying hours beyond official thresholds and that paperwork was falsified. The charges against Wright do not relate to the cause of the accident and the prosecution does not allege he is responsible for either the crash, Mr Wilson's death or Mr Robinson's injuries. The key accusations against Wright are that he asked an associate to "torch" the maintenance release for the crashed helicopter, he lied about the amount of fuel in the machine's tank and that he tried to get Mr Robinson to transfer flying hours from that machine onto his own. The jury has heard of the dangers of egg collecting where a man on a sling line beneath a chopper is lowered onto croc nests in remote swamps, with perhaps a handgun to protect against female reptiles protecting their nests. Senior defence counsel David Edwardson described those involved in helicopter croc-egg collecting in the Top End as being "thick as thieves", having each other's backs amid the dangerous work they did. Family members of Mr Robinson are expected to give evidence next week on whether Wright tried to pressure him to manipulate flight records. Mr Edwardson has told the jury there were serious questions of credibility surrounding testimony from the family. Mr Robinson has admitted to cocaine use and supply but has told the court he never flew helicopters while high. He has vigorously denied the helicopter crashed because it ran out of fuel. The trial has been going for two weeks and could go for another three before Acting Justice Allan Blow. The much-anticipated trial of reality TV star Matt Wright has laid bare the cowboy world of Top End helicopter-flying in crocodile country. The Outback Wrangler star has pleaded not guilty to three charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice. The charges follow a helicopter crash in February 2022 that killed Wright's friend and co-star Chris "Willow" Wilson on a crocodile-egg collecting mission in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. Pilot Sebastian Robinson, who was left a paraplegic after the crash, has endured three days of tough questioning in the Supreme Court in Darwin by video link from his wheelchair. Wright's lawyers have painted Mr Robinson as a cocaine-using "party animal" who constantly broke aviation rules, including disconnecting flying-hour meters. But the jury has heard that Wright also disconnected meters and falsified maintenance releases and pilot logbooks to match, and told his pilots to do so. Such practices were commonplace across the helicopter industry in the territory, jurors have been told. Wright also allegedly allowed Mr Wilson, a trainee pilot, to take the controls of helicopters with pilots who were not trained instructors, in a breach of aviation regulations. Prosecutors allege Wright was worried after the crash that investigators would learn his choppers' meters were regularly disconnected to extend flying hours beyond official thresholds and that paperwork was falsified. The charges against Wright do not relate to the cause of the accident and the prosecution does not allege he is responsible for either the crash, Mr Wilson's death or Mr Robinson's injuries. The key accusations against Wright are that he asked an associate to "torch" the maintenance release for the crashed helicopter, he lied about the amount of fuel in the machine's tank and that he tried to get Mr Robinson to transfer flying hours from that machine onto his own. The jury has heard of the dangers of egg collecting where a man on a sling line beneath a chopper is lowered onto croc nests in remote swamps, with perhaps a handgun to protect against female reptiles protecting their nests. Senior defence counsel David Edwardson described those involved in helicopter croc-egg collecting in the Top End as being "thick as thieves", having each other's backs amid the dangerous work they did. Family members of Mr Robinson are expected to give evidence next week on whether Wright tried to pressure him to manipulate flight records. Mr Edwardson has told the jury there were serious questions of credibility surrounding testimony from the family. Mr Robinson has admitted to cocaine use and supply but has told the court he never flew helicopters while high. He has vigorously denied the helicopter crashed because it ran out of fuel. The trial has been going for two weeks and could go for another three before Acting Justice Allan Blow. The much-anticipated trial of reality TV star Matt Wright has laid bare the cowboy world of Top End helicopter-flying in crocodile country. The Outback Wrangler star has pleaded not guilty to three charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice. The charges follow a helicopter crash in February 2022 that killed Wright's friend and co-star Chris "Willow" Wilson on a crocodile-egg collecting mission in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. Pilot Sebastian Robinson, who was left a paraplegic after the crash, has endured three days of tough questioning in the Supreme Court in Darwin by video link from his wheelchair. Wright's lawyers have painted Mr Robinson as a cocaine-using "party animal" who constantly broke aviation rules, including disconnecting flying-hour meters. But the jury has heard that Wright also disconnected meters and falsified maintenance releases and pilot logbooks to match, and told his pilots to do so. Such practices were commonplace across the helicopter industry in the territory, jurors have been told. Wright also allegedly allowed Mr Wilson, a trainee pilot, to take the controls of helicopters with pilots who were not trained instructors, in a breach of aviation regulations. Prosecutors allege Wright was worried after the crash that investigators would learn his choppers' meters were regularly disconnected to extend flying hours beyond official thresholds and that paperwork was falsified. The charges against Wright do not relate to the cause of the accident and the prosecution does not allege he is responsible for either the crash, Mr Wilson's death or Mr Robinson's injuries. The key accusations against Wright are that he asked an associate to "torch" the maintenance release for the crashed helicopter, he lied about the amount of fuel in the machine's tank and that he tried to get Mr Robinson to transfer flying hours from that machine onto his own. The jury has heard of the dangers of egg collecting where a man on a sling line beneath a chopper is lowered onto croc nests in remote swamps, with perhaps a handgun to protect against female reptiles protecting their nests. Senior defence counsel David Edwardson described those involved in helicopter croc-egg collecting in the Top End as being "thick as thieves", having each other's backs amid the dangerous work they did. Family members of Mr Robinson are expected to give evidence next week on whether Wright tried to pressure him to manipulate flight records. Mr Edwardson has told the jury there were serious questions of credibility surrounding testimony from the family. Mr Robinson has admitted to cocaine use and supply but has told the court he never flew helicopters while high. He has vigorously denied the helicopter crashed because it ran out of fuel. The trial has been going for two weeks and could go for another three before Acting Justice Allan Blow. The much-anticipated trial of reality TV star Matt Wright has laid bare the cowboy world of Top End helicopter-flying in crocodile country. The Outback Wrangler star has pleaded not guilty to three charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice. The charges follow a helicopter crash in February 2022 that killed Wright's friend and co-star Chris "Willow" Wilson on a crocodile-egg collecting mission in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. Pilot Sebastian Robinson, who was left a paraplegic after the crash, has endured three days of tough questioning in the Supreme Court in Darwin by video link from his wheelchair. Wright's lawyers have painted Mr Robinson as a cocaine-using "party animal" who constantly broke aviation rules, including disconnecting flying-hour meters. But the jury has heard that Wright also disconnected meters and falsified maintenance releases and pilot logbooks to match, and told his pilots to do so. Such practices were commonplace across the helicopter industry in the territory, jurors have been told. Wright also allegedly allowed Mr Wilson, a trainee pilot, to take the controls of helicopters with pilots who were not trained instructors, in a breach of aviation regulations. Prosecutors allege Wright was worried after the crash that investigators would learn his choppers' meters were regularly disconnected to extend flying hours beyond official thresholds and that paperwork was falsified. The charges against Wright do not relate to the cause of the accident and the prosecution does not allege he is responsible for either the crash, Mr Wilson's death or Mr Robinson's injuries. The key accusations against Wright are that he asked an associate to "torch" the maintenance release for the crashed helicopter, he lied about the amount of fuel in the machine's tank and that he tried to get Mr Robinson to transfer flying hours from that machine onto his own. The jury has heard of the dangers of egg collecting where a man on a sling line beneath a chopper is lowered onto croc nests in remote swamps, with perhaps a handgun to protect against female reptiles protecting their nests. Senior defence counsel David Edwardson described those involved in helicopter croc-egg collecting in the Top End as being "thick as thieves", having each other's backs amid the dangerous work they did. Family members of Mr Robinson are expected to give evidence next week on whether Wright tried to pressure him to manipulate flight records. Mr Edwardson has told the jury there were serious questions of credibility surrounding testimony from the family. Mr Robinson has admitted to cocaine use and supply but has told the court he never flew helicopters while high. He has vigorously denied the helicopter crashed because it ran out of fuel. The trial has been going for two weeks and could go for another three before Acting Justice Allan Blow.
ABC News
6 hours ago
- ABC News
Matt Wright trial hears allegations of cocaine use and COVID-19 breaches
An "anti-vax" crocodile wrangler, a helicopter pilot's cocaine use and the patchy memory of witnesses struggling to recall key details of a fatal crash scene. These were just snippets from an explosive week of evidence heard by a jury in the high-profile Northern Territory Supreme Court trial against the Outback Wrangler Matt Wright. The star of Netflix reality adventure show Wild Croc Territory has been charged with three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice, to which he's pleaded not guilty. The prosecution has alleged Mr Wright tried to obstruct and interfere with investigations into a helicopter crash which killed his co-star Chris 'Willow' Wilson on February 28, 2022. Mr Wright's alleged to have done so with the motive of covering up a culture at his helicopter business, Helibrook, of systemically under-reporting helicopter flying hours — which the prosecution alleges was to avoid costly maintenance requirements for his fleet of choppers. Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC has alleged that after the crash Mr Wright was concerned that his "failure to record hours" would be revealed and "he could be blamed for the crash". Mr Wright is not alleged to have been at fault over the crash. The sole survivor of the crash, pilot Sebastian Robinson, took to the stand this week as a key witness in the prosecution's case, in which he branded Mr Wright an "anti-vaxxer" who allegedly asked him to alter flight records just 11 days after the crash which nearly killed him. Now paraplegic and forced to take breaks from giving evidence every 30 minutes, Mr Robinson told the jury of the life-altering injuries he'd been left with from the crash, from losing the use of his legs to a traumatic brain injury he continues to grapple with. He alleged that in March 2022, Mr Wright visited his Brisbane hospital room, with documents in his hand, and asked him to "manipulate hours on my aircraft". "I was obviously laying in a hospital bed," he said. "I was still in a pretty bad way and very confused, and I knew something wasn't right. "And I said, 'I'd think about it.'" While at his bedside, Mr Robinson also alleged Mr Wright deleted items from his phone, including notes about flying hours – an allegation which Mr Wright's barrister David Edwardson KC described as "an absolute falsehood". "Mr Robinson I suggest that, brain injury or not, Mr Wright never touched your phone and never deleted a single message from it," he said. In visiting the hospital, Mr Robinson also alleged that the Outback Wrangler had broken COVID-19 restrictions, due to him being unvaccinated. 'He was an anti-vaxxer," Mr Robinson said. '[To visit the hospital] you had to have a valid COVID certificate … a certificate of vaccination." As the injured former pilot gave evidence via video link to a packed courtroom, Mr Edwardson turned the microscope onto his past illegal drug use. The barrister questioned Mr Robinson on the extent of his past cocaine use, presenting extracted text messages sent and received by the chopper pilot. In one such message from 2019, Mr Edwardson said the pilot wrote: "Footy players in town and want bags." In another, a text conversation was laid bare with a "distant friend" named Morto: Sebastian Robinson: "Might have to come down Monday, crook as a dog." Morto: "Snorting too much coke out of Matty's arse, bro"? In response, Mr Edwardson said "you certainly know that Matt Wright has nothing to do with cocaine, don't you?" "Well, Morto's saying, 'snorting too much coke out of Matt's arse,'" he said. "Are you telling me you've been snorting coke out of Matt's arse?" Mr Edwardson asked. Mr Robinson was also asked whether he was ever a drug dealer, which he denied. "I've used cocaine before … I used to use it, you know, recreationally, maybe a couple of times a year," the witness said. In blood test results after the fatal crash, the court heard Mr Robinson had traces of cocaine in his system, which the prosecution said in its opening statement was "metabolised" and not to blame for the incident. Mr Robinson was also quizzed as to whether he had ever supplied alcohol to liquor-restricted remote Aboriginal communities in Arnhem Land, to which replied "to sell, no I did not". The court was shown videos of Mr Robinson appearing to share alcohol with an Aboriginal ranger in Arnhem Land, which the pilot identified as a friend from Maningrida. Earlier in the week, the courtroom hosted a number of other witnesses, from fellow helicopter pilots to a crocodile egg industry manager and a CareFlight nurse. Among those was Jock Purcell, one of the crew involved in the egg collecting mission the day Mr Robinson's chopper crashed in a remote paperbark swamp. Mr Purcell, who was an employee of Mr Wright and also featured in Wild Croc Territory, often struggled to recall key details from the fatal crash site in 2022. At one stage that afternoon, Mr Gullaci questioned whether Mr Purcell was being more forthcoming to questioning from Mr Wright's defence barrister than to the prosecution: "Has your memory improved during the course of the day in giving evidence?" The surviving pilot, Mr Robinson, has also repeatedly said in evidence that he can't remember a lot from the time surrounding the fatal crash. With multiple witnesses giving evidence through the trial, often with differing perspectives of the same scene, the jury was evidently struggling. In a note to Acting Justice Alan Blow, the jury asked whether they could have some clarity to help them navigate the "discrepancies" between witness accounts. "Yes, different people have said different things," Judge Alan Blow said in response. A challenging task ahead for the jury as the trial against the Outback Wrangler gets ever more complex, with evidence set to continue in the NT Supreme Court next week.
The Australian
7 hours ago
- The Australian
Matt Wright trial: Pilot's alleged spray at boss over stormy weather egg collection request
A young pilot told the Outback Wrangler to 'get f--ked, get vaccinated and go fly his own helicopter' after his boss chewed him out for pulling out of an unsafe mission. Sebastian Robinson on Friday finished giving evidence after being grilled over four days in the trial of Aussie reality television star, Matt Wright. The Apple TV and Netflix star has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice during the investigation into a chopper crash that killed his co-star Chris 'Willow' Wilson. It is not alleged Mr Wright is responsible for the crash. On Friday the Northern Territory jury heard about the 'Australia Day incident' where the 28-year-old pilot and Mr Wright had a fight a month before the fatal crash. Pilot Sebastian Robinson and Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright on a crocodile egg collecting mission in January 2016. Photo: Supplied Mr Robinson said on January 26, he, Mr Wilson and fellow pilot Michael Burbidge were contracted for a crocodile egg collecting mission at the mouth of the Daly River, in the NT. The jury was shown photos of the chopper with an oncoming Wet Season storm looming in the background. 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. He said they went back to the Noonamah Tavern to watch the traditional Australia Day 'ute run' and have a 'beer and a feed'. Outback Wrangler Matt Wright and his wife Kaia Wright approaching the Supreme Court in Darwin. Picture: NewsWire / Pema Tamang Pakhrin Pilot Sebastian Robinson during filming of Kane Chenoweth's documentary Sky Cowboy in February 2022. Mr Robinson said 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'. 'You sit out there, you f--king ... you wait the weather out. You f--king deal with it,' Mr Wright allegedly said. The jury has previously heard Mr Wright was not able to take part in egg collecting missions in early 2022 because he was an 'anti-vaxxer'. 'I told him to get f--ked, get vaccinated and fly his own helicopter,' Mr Robinson said on Friday. In a group chat with Mr Burbidge and Mr Wilson, the young pilot alleged Mr Wright 'called us all bludgers' for pulling out of the dangerous conditions. The young pilot this contributed to his decision to leave Mr Wright's Helibrook, and he establishing his own company Arnhem Helicopters. Mr Wright sent Mr Robinson a message the next day saying he was 'sorry for blowing up'. The trial continues on Monday. Read related topics: Weather Zizi Averill Journalist Zizi Averill is the police and crime reporter for the NT News, based up in Darwin. She previously worked as a journalist in Bendigo, Victoria and Mackay, Queensland. @ZiziAverill Zizi Averill
