Crocodiles, covert recordings and alleged lies in Outback Wrangler Matt Wright's trial

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11 hours ago

Covertly recorded late-night phone calls, a bugged house, and listening devices in a hospital room have all been deployed in the case against celebrity crocodile wrangler Matt Wright.
The star of Netflix reality adventure show Wild Croc Territory has sat in the dock for the first week of his highly anticipated, high-profile Northern Territory Supreme Court trial, as the prosecution revealed the extent police have gone to try to gather evidence against him.
The first days of this trial have also shed light on the extraordinary lives of men in the remote Northern Territory who fly helicopters and tangle with giant saltwater crocodiles for a living.
Mr Wright has been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice over events which allegedly occurred in the aftermath of a fatal helicopter crash which killed his close mate and co-star, Chris "Willow" Wilson, in remote west Arnhem Land on February 28, 2022.
Mr Wilson was on a crocodile egg-collecting mission near King River, in a very remote corner of Arnhem Land, when the chopper he was hanging from on a harness went down.
What happened in the hours, days and months after that crash is now being heard in detail — and a culture of alleged aviation industry rule-breaking has been brought into the open.
In his opening speech, Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC said the case "is not about who caused the crash … and certainly doesn't allege that Mr Wright was responsible".
Rather, it centres on allegations Mr Wright tried to cover up a culture in his helicopter company, Helibrook, of misreporting flying hours to avoid costly maintenance requirements.
"What the prosecution case is, is that Mr Wright was concerned after the crash that his failure would be revealed — that is, his failure to record hours — the real hours that the helicopters were being flown and that he could be blamed for the crash," Mr Gullaci said.
Mr Wright is alleged to have doctored documents, lied to police and threatened to destroy evidence which, it has been alleged, was to cover up "systemic under-reporting… of [helicopter flying] hours that could be used as a way to blame him for the accident".
The evidence which Mr Gullaci said would be introduced to the jury over coming weeks to try to prove these allegations included covert recordings from Mr Wright's home and phone.
On one recording allegedly made after midnight more than six months after the crash, Mr Wright is on the phone to an associate, Jai Tomlinson, when he was alleged to have told Mr Tomlinson to destroy a helicopter maintenance document by saying "just burn the c***".
"Just torch it," he's alleged to have said.
In another conversation with his wife, Kaia Wright, Mr Wright is alleged to have made the comments regarding his flying hours:
"I don't write shit down. I don't even have a f***ing log book."
Mr Wright's barrister, David Edwardson KC, said his client "emphatically denies" the allegations.
He questioned the strength of the evidence, including the audio quality of the covertly recorded phone calls and the reliability of key witness testimony.
The first witnesses to take to the stand in Mr Wright's trial have included veterans of the crocodile industry, fellow helicopter pilots, and a former high-ranking NT police officer.
First up was prominent Darwin crocodile farmer Mick Burns, who ran the business that contracted Mr Wilson and his team for the croc egg collecting mission.
Mr Burns gave detailed accounts about the dangerous occupation of croc egg collecting.
"Sometimes, you've got to land [the aircraft] and walk, you know, 100 or 200 metres in 14 or 15 foot cane grass," he said.
"It's hot, it's humid, it's water.
"And … it's obviously crocodile country, so there's a fair degree of risk there."
The court heard that in the hours after Mr Wilson was killed in the helicopter crash, Mr Burns, Mr Wright and off-duty police officer Neil Mellon flew to the scene in a chopper.
Among events alleged to have occurred at the site, an allegation that Mr Wright went into the downed helicopter and removed some items before playing "around with the dash".
Another detail raised was that another chopper pilot at the scene, Mick Burbidge, was handed Mr Wilson's phone and told "Dani doesn't need to see what's on that", referring to Mr Wilson's widow, Danielle Wilson, before he allegedly disposed of the phone into the ocean.
Those events have also, according to Mr Wright's barrister, Mr Edwardson, been the subject of unprecedented rumour outside of the court that he has pleaded with the jury to ignore.
"There have been many ill-informed, if not scandalous, opinions expressed in many different forums from social media to commercial TV," he said.
"This is a case which requires absolute intellectual rigour and discipline … you must not pre-judge Matt Wright or the issues in this case."
With multiple weeks and witnesses yet to go, the trial in the NT Supreme Court continues.