Matt Wright trial: Prosecution finishes closing arguments in Netflix star’s case — because it occurred

Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC has completed his closing handle and the jurors have been despatched dwelling with a warning they could possibly be in for a protracted session tomorrow.

Acting Justice Alan Blow instructed the 12 jurors and one reserve juror they might hear from defence barrister David Edwardson KC within the morning however “he’s predicted he won’t take as long as Mr Gullaci“.

After that, Acting Justice Blow stated he would handle the jury himself which might doubtless take till after lunch after which the reserve juror might be discharged.

“Unless you beg to be released earlier, or reach verdicts earlier, I’d like to keep you here till 6pm,” he stated.

“If you haven’t reached verdicts tomorrow, I would hope that you do on Friday but you mustn’t be under time pressure.”

Acting Justice Blow stated the jurors would then be allowed to go dwelling in a single day however might find yourself again in courtroom over the weekend.

“On Friday, one of the options, if you’re still deliberating late in the day, is to provide an evening meal and get you to stay here until you’ve reached a verdict,” he stated

“Other options would be to get you to come back on Saturday or on Monday of next week, so it’s all a bit uncertain.”

The courtroom has now adjourned till 9:30am ACST,once we’ll be again with reside protection of Mr Edwardson’s closing handle.

 Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC has instructed the jury the opposite man captured on the recordings on the centre of cost three, Jai Tomlinson, was “not telling the truth” in his proof.

Mr Gullaci says Mr Tomlinson had “just put the shutters up”.

“It was a default position of ‘I don’t know, I don’t remember’.”

But Mr Gullaci says Mr Tomlinson “knew exactly what this conversation was about”.

“We say that he must have had a recollection of having these discussions with Mr Wright some time in September, 2022,” he stated.

“He was so prepared to just dig in, in a different way from [Timothy] Johnston, that we had to go through that charade about what ‘squeal’ means, and it was laughable.

“More importantly, his precise response within the transcript reveals that he is aware of precisely what ‘squeal’ means.

“That was the level he was prepared to go, to not genuinely try and assist you.”

Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC has instructed jurors step one of their evaluation of cost three will come right down to what they will hear on the covert recordings.

Mr Gullaci says earlier than they “even consider convicting Mr Wright on charge three”, they should be glad they will hear him say both “just torch it” or “just burn the c***”.

“That is like a gatekeeper to your ability to convict Mr Wright,” he stated.

“[But] just because you hear those words, ‘just torch it’, and ‘just burn the c***’, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the end of the matter.

“You’ve acquired to be glad they’re speaking about what the prosecution says they’re speaking about, however that’s your first step.

“If you cannot hear those three words or those four words you cannot convict Mr Wright.”

The ABC has launched a brand new podcast, The Case Of, which options twice-weekly episodes on Matt Wright’s legal trial.

In the most recent episode, ABC Northern Territory courtroom reporter Olivana Lathouris, together with Stephen Stockwell, speak by covert recordings of Mr Wright allegedly discussing the destruction of a helicopter upkeep doc, which had been performed to the courtroom final week.

The Case Of is the follow-up to the hit ABC podcast Mushroom Case Daily.

You can hear by ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.

The jury has taken the afternoon break and might be again in about 20 minutes.

Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC has instructed jurors one other covert recording is “the final piece of the puzzle” within the second cost of trying to pervert the course of justice.

Mr Gullaci says whereas “there’s no absolute gotcha moment” within the recording from Mr Wright’s go to to pilot Sebastian Robinson in hospital, there are “some pretty important pieces in it”.

“If the purpose of Mr Wright’s visit was to help Sebastian Robinson bring his ZXZ hours up to date, why is [Mr Robinson’s helicopter] ZXZ not mentioned in this recording?” he requested.

“What’s the only aircraft registration mentioned in this recording that you can see? It’s [Mr Wright’s helicopter] IDW.”

Mr Gullaci says the recording captures Mr Wright discussing variations between “flight times” and “MR [maintenance release  form] times”

“We’re talking about what you’ve heard so much of in this case, flight times not marrying up with MR times,” Mr Gullaci stated.

“It’s not about Sebastian Robinson doing his paperwork.”

Mr Galluci says Mr Wright then says “but I can do that via invoices anyway”.

“Now you know Matt Wright didn’t send Sebastian Robinson invoices, so that can’t be the explanation,” he stated.

“This is Matt Wright trying to reconstruct the figures, make them fit, help him conceal what was actually happening, that’s what’s being discussed.”

Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC has reminded jurors of a secretly recorded dialog between Matt Wright and his spouse Kaia Wright which he says is “dynamite”.

“‘I thought he flew that so I handed him that, that’s what was logged but you know, there were 30 or 40 hours that we were trying to f***ing make up and we did it’, Mr Wright allegedly says on the recording,” Mr Gullaci stated.

“‘It doesn’t matter which way I looked at it, there’s no good answer to CASA [the Civil Aviation Safety Authority].'”‘

“I submit to you that that is direct conversation about the attendance at hospital,” Mr Gullaci stated.

“He went to the hospital to help himself.”

Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC says jurors can infer Matt Wright “somehow” managed to get into hospital to go to injured pilot Sebastian Robinson regardless of COVID restrictions in place on the time.

Mr Gullaci stated Mr Wright was unvaccinated within the days after the crash and witnesses had instructed the courtroom “you had to submit your COVID certificate” to enter the hospital.

“You can draw the inference that, somehow, Mr Wright got into hospital without being vaccinated and if that’s correct, if that’s what you conclude as a matter of fact, it’s very important, and here’s why,” he stated.

“One would hope that you wouldn’t do that just to correct someone’s paperwork.

“Or is it indicative of somebody who needed to get into the hospital and eyeball Mr Robinson, put the onerous phrase on him? ‘I’m the large man on campus, that is what we should always do’.

“If you think that might be what he was doing, was that the level he was prepared to go to, to make sure he could access that hospital and have a face-to-face conversation with Mr Robinson?”

Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC has instructed the jury they need to reject Tim Johnston’s proof because it “just does not make sense” and “he was doing it to protect [his employer] Matt Wright“.

Mr Gullaci stated Mr Johnston’s proof that he “wasn’t told what to pick up” from pilot Sebastian Robinson in hospital after which, “Oh, no, I was asked to pick these things up” contradicted itself.

“He then tied himself in knots about the phone,” Mr Gullaci stated.

“He wanted to maintain the line of, ‘I wasn’t asked to pick up the phone, but I saw it in the backpack’ and said, ‘Oh, well, could I take that back with me’ out of the generosity of his heart

“But then after I really spoke to him about it, he could not give one correct motive why he would try this, in reality he agreed to a number of the propositions put to him about how ridiculous it was.”

Mr Gullaci said Mr Johnston had “had a fairly good crack at rejecting his personal proof” after agreeing “one facet of it’s nonsense and one other facet of it simply would not sound correct”.

“His whole proof simply doesn’t make sense and my submission to you is it is best to reject what he says,” he said.

Mr Gullaci said Mr Johnston’s claim he spoke to Mr Wright after collecting the items was contradicted by phone records which showed no such call was made.

“He was doing it to guard Matt Wright as a result of he knew that it could not be on the request of Matt Wright to get this data, particularly the cellphone,” he stated.

Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC has told jurors two of the witnesses in the trial treated them “like a bunch of muppets”.

Mr Gullaci says both Timothy Johnston and Jai Tomlinson were “ridgy-didge liars”.

“There isn’t any technique to sugar coat it, they each lied to you, that is the submission that I make to you,” he stated.

 “It was so egregious within the case, at one level, of, I feel, Mr Johnston, I really requested him to look you within the eye and say that he was telling the reality and he was nonetheless ready to take action.

“But they lied to you, both of them, they treated you collectively like a bunch of muppets.

“They had been ridgy-didge liars
and it was patently apparent what they had been doing, a few of their solutions had been simply plain ridiculous.”

While court is on a lunch break, here’s an overview of the charges.

Matt Wright has been charged with three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The charges relate to alleged events in the hours, days and months following a fatal helicopter crash in remote West Arnhem Land which killed Mr Wright’s close mate and Netflix co-star, Chris “Willow” Wilson.

Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC has told jurors the cause of the chopper accident is not the subject of Mr Wright’s charges.

Instead, every of the costs allege Mr Wright tried to intrude with or hinder ongoing investigations into the crash.

• Charge one relates to allegations Mr Wright lied in a police interview about checking the fuel tanks at the scene of the helicopter crash on February 28, 2022. The evidence includes covertly-recorded conversations in which Mr Wright allegedly contradicts his statement about the level of fuel in the tank.

• Charge two is tied to alleged incidents between March 3 and 13 in 2022. Among those, Mr Wright is accused of visiting crash survivor Sebastian Robinson in hospital and pressuring him to doctor flight log documents, to hide the true amount of hours the crashed chopper had flown.

• Charge three relates to conversations prosecutors say Mr Wright had between September 21 and 25, including a midnight conversation with an associate in which he’s allegedly directed him to burn a helicopter maintenance document.

Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC closed the prosecution’s case on Friday after calling all the evidence and witnesses in the Crown case and began his closing address.

So, why didn’t the defence call any evidence?

After the prosecution case closes, the defence then has an opportunity to call any witnesses who haven’t already testified.

But keep in mind that as an accused person, Matt Wright doesn’t have to prove a thing – that burden falls solely on the prosecution.

For Mr Wright to be found guilty, jurors must be satisfied that prosecutors have proven every element of each of the offences he’s facing, beyond a reasonable doubt.

It’s also worth noting that prosecutors have a responsibility to call all relevant and admissible evidence available to them, including evidence that may not be favourable to their case.

As a result, in many circumstances, there will be no need for the defence to call anyone, and the court will proceed straight to closing addresses.

In this case, the defence declined to call any additional evidence and Mr Wright’s barrister David Edwardson KC will proceed straight to his final speech to the jury after Mr Gullaci is done.

Matt Wright has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

For him to be found guilty, jurors must be satisfied that prosecutors have proven each element of each of the three offences, beyond a reasonable doubt.

So what are the elements of the offence of attempting to pervert the course of justice?

As Acting Justice Alan Blow defined to jurors final week:

“The crime of trying to pervert the course of justice has three elements.

“First of all, a person has to do something.

“Second, doing that factor has to generally tend to pervert the course of justice.

“Third, the accused person has to intend that doing that thing will have that result of perverting the course of justice.

“So the Crown case is that on these three events Mr Wright stated issues that had the tendency to intrude with the investigations, and that he supposed to intrude with the investigations.”

If the jurors are not satisfied the Crown has proven each of those elements beyond a reasonable doubt, they are required to enter a verdict of not guilty.

As Mr Wright is facing three separate counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice, it will be open to the jury to find him guilty on all charges, acquit him on all charges or deliver different verdicts for each charge.

The court has adjourned for the lunch break and Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC will continue his closing address from 2pm ACST.

I’ll be again with you then.

Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC has told jurors the lead up to Matt Wright’s visit to pilot Sebastian Robinson in hospital after the crash “reveals that the try and pervert the course of justice that, we are saying, was very a lot on foot, was persistent, intentional and deliberate”.

Mr Gullaci has urged jurors to reject any suggestion the allegations made by Mr Robinson’s family members that Mr Wright pressured him to transfer flying hours from one helicopter to another were impossible.

“One of the core tenants of the defence case on cost two goes to be that what the Chellingworths and what the Robinsons have requested you to just accept is simply not doable,” he stated.

“How might you modify the hours after the occasion?”

But Mr Gullaci says Mr Wright’s alleged visit to the hangar where Mr Robinson’s helicopter, ZXZ, was kept prior to visiting him in hospital provided the opportunity.

“Do you reckon that possibly, by going to the hangar the place the very helicopter is, you might need a little bit of a Bo Peep on the Hobbs meter?” he stated.

“So that is a technique that he had that means to have actual data about what the hours had been on ZXZ earlier than he goes to the hospital on the eleventh of March, 2022.”

Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC has told jurors if they are still unconvinced Matt Wright lied to police, one of the phone taps “places the matter past a shadow of a doubt”.

Mr Gullaci is quoting from transcripts of the phone taps in which he says Mr Wright says “something that has been completed was to guard Sebby“.

Then, in a later call, Mr Gullaci says Mr Wright says “my downfall was attempting to guard Sebby“.

“I used to be like, ‘Yeah, I regarded within the tank and thought it was half a tank’, I did not see f***ing any gas within the f***ing tank, zero,” Mr Wright allegedly says.

Mr Gullaci says the call shows that when Mr Wright says “I believed there was half a tank”, “he was repeating to the particular person he was speaking to what he instructed the police”.

“We say, in unambiguous phrases, cost one, not solely is it a easy depend nevertheless it’s a depend that actually should not train a lot of your time,” Mr Gullaci said.

“He instructed what we are saying was a blatant lie.

“He told a lie, thinking he could protect himself and his friend and later on he tells people there just wasn’t any fuel there.”

Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC says Matt Wright’s alleged makes an attempt to make sure the investigation into the deadly crash went “nowhere” began on the scene of the accident.

Mr Gullaci learn from a transcript of a recorded dialog between Mr Wright and his spouse Kaia Wright by which he says “I was looking under the dash”.

“Without question, that is a reference, and this is a conversation about, what happened at the scene when the console was opened up,” Mr Gullaci stated.

Mr Gullaci says whereas “in isolation” the feedback could be “a bit vague”, the following recorded dialog “puts this just beyond reasonable doubt”.

“You know what, f***ng hell, sitting out there, f***in’ Jocko was like ‘Matty, it’s all good, don’t touch anything’, ‘Nah, Jocko, let me look’, ‘Matty, it’s all good, don’t touch anything’,” Mr Wright allegedly says on the recording.

“I had to check for myself, I didn’t know if Seb has f***ed with the machine.

“So I used to be doing it to guard, sure, me, and Seb, and anyway, it was all good, nobody touched nothing, nobody tampered with nothing.”

Mr Gullaci says the two conversations together, along with evidence from pilot and egg-collector Jock Purcell, “leaves little doubt”.

“What Mr Wright needed to do was to make sure that the Hobbs meter was linked,” he stated.

“Because if it wasn’t, that might have been the primary set off level, you would possibly assume, when it comes to investigating what had gone on with this helicopter.”

A lot of evidence has been aired in court over the last four weeks.

If you’re finding it hard to keep up, you’re certainly not alone.

For a quick refresher, read our breakdown of the key players in the trial, the charges and the evidence heard so far, by ABC digital reporters Gemma Ferguson and Annabel Bowles.

Yesterday, Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC began his closing arguments, which he resumed this morning.

Mr Gullaci instructed the jury:

• Not to get caught up in the emotion of the tragic fatal accident.
• Not to be swayed by the “saturation” of media coverage on the case.
• That pilot Sebastian Robinson had withstood a “full-frontal credit score assault” from the defence.
• That in relation to this case, “no-one cares that [Matt Wright’s] a celeb”.

To catch up on what the court heard yesterday, read this wrap by ABC court reporter Jason Walls.

The jurors have taken their morning break and might be again in about 20 minutes.