Matt Wright trial: Chopper crash survivor Seb Robinson grilled over cocaine texts in court

West Australian

17 hours ago

A young pilot has admitted to supplying cocaine to party with his mates and footy players, while also flying small amounts of booze into Aboriginal communities, a jury has heard.
Former helicopter pilot for Outback Wrangler Matt Wright, Sebastian Robinson has denied being a 'drug dealer' after being questioned in court about a series of texts about his wild partying with mates and footy players.
Mr Robinson was the sole survivor of a helicopter crash during a crocodile egg collecting mission in a remote section of the Northern Territory on February 28, 2022.
His friend and Outback Wrangler star, Chris 'Willow' Wilson was killed in the crash – and three years on, Mr Robinson remains a paraplegic.
Their boss, Matt Wright, pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice during the investigation into the crash.
Mr Wright has been accused of attempting to hide the under reporting of flight hours.
However his defence senior counsel David Edwardson has accused the young pilot of attempting to escape the blame for the catastrophic crash.
On Thursday Mr Edwardson accused Mr Robinson of 'sourcing and supplying' the drug from 2018, to the time of the crash.
'You would, from time to time, source cocaine and provide it to your friends and those who wanted to party with you,' Mr Edwardson said.
Mr Edwardson read aloud messages from the pilot's friends asking 'are you getting more coke?', 'Seb any chance you know where to get the good stuff?' and 'anyone got bags?'.
In one message exchange 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, to which Mr Edwardson said: 'You certainly know Matt Wright has nothing to do with cocaine'.
'Are you telling me you've been snorting cocaine out of Matt Wright's arse?' the lawyer continued.
'No, I'm just saying (he) obviously knows Matt,' Mr Robinson said.
Mr Edwardson has previously stated that the reality television star had a 'zero tolerance' approach to drugs.
The former pilot was also grilled about a message sent to a mate in November 2019, saying there were 'footy players in town wanting bags'.
Mr Edwardson asked if this was in relation to the Richmond AFL team seeking cocaine while in town, but Mr Robinson said he could not recall who he was messaging about.
Mr Edwardson also questioned Mr Robinson about texts about 'zingers' and 'pills', but the former pilot said he could not remember the context of the messages.
'Are you implying I'm a drug dealer? … No,' Mr Robinson said.
The young former pilot said his mates would sometimes pay him for the drugs, but said at the time he did not believe he was 'trafficking' as it was only a 'very minimal' amount.
However Justice Alan Blow explained: 'Look, it is trafficking, even if you're not making any money for yourself.'.
'If you buy some drugs and pass them on to someone else who reimburses you, that's trafficking as far as the law's concerned,' Justice Blow said.
After having this explained by the judge, Mr Robinson said 'I understand now'.
Mr Robinson said these messages were extracted over an eight-year period, and has told the jury he only used cocaine 'a couple times a year'.
Mr Robinson had previously admitted he deleted items from his phone prior to being questioned by crash investigators.
On Thursday Mr Edwardson asked Mr Robinson if he removed any messages about his cocaine use, or being intoxicated while flying.
Mr Robinson rejected this, stating: 'If I was going to delete something, wouldn't I have deleted it all?'.
Trace amounts of cocaine were detected in the pilot's blood, which prosecutor Jason Gullaci said experts were likely to say was from use days before the crash.
On Thursday, Mr Robinson — who suffered a traumatic brain injury in the crash — said he had no memory of a mutual friend's birthday party from two days before the incident.
'I have no recollection of the days, the week prior to the accident,' he said.
Mr Robinson admitted to flying in booze to remote communities, but said he did not sell the alcohol.
He said 'on occasion' he would take a small amount of alcohol under the seat of his chopper for people who worked in Arnhem Land.
A video played to the court showed Mr Robinson pouring a mug of Bundaberg rum for a friend and Indigenous ranger in Arnhem Land, and another where he said his friend was 'f--king stoned'.
Mr Robinson denied he provided the cannabis, stating: 'There's marijuana all throughout Maningrida'.
He maintained that videos of him smoking prior to the crash showed him using tobacco, not cannabis.
The cross examination of Mr Robinson is expected to continue on Thursday.