Matt Wright jury begins deliberations after weeks of proof in NT Supreme Court trial

After a trial that “captured the imagination” of the world’s media and “must have cost millions”, the case towards Matt Wright boils right down to nothing greater than “guesswork and speculation”, a courtroom has heard.

The eyes of the Northern Territory and past have been firmly fastened on the Supreme Court in Darwin for the reason that superstar crocodile wrangler pleaded not responsible earlier this month to a few counts of making an attempt to pervert the course of justice.

On Thursday afternoon, after weeks of proof, jurors filed out of the courtroom to start their deliberations following a remaining tackle from defence barrister David Edwardson KC.

In urging the jury to acquit his consumer on all counts, Mr Edwardson instructed the 12 women and men there have been “no winners in a case like this”, stemming from a 2022 helicopter crash that killed Netflix star Chris “Willow” Wilson and significantly injured pilot Sebastian Robinson.

“This helicopter crash is a tragedy, Matt Wright lost his best friend and Sebastian Robinson is, as you now know, a paraplegic,” he mentioned.

“The tight-knit friendship that existed amongst this small group of courageous folks has been ceaselessly destroyed by the occasions that occurred on the twenty eighth of February, 2022 and that, you may assume, is a tragedy in itself.

“Matt Wright has gone from the face of Darwin tourism, to now sitting in the dock with his fate in your hands.”

Wright, buddy ‘clearly pissed’

Mr Wright just isn’t accused of any wrongdoing in relation to the crash however of attempting to derail an investigation he allegedly feared would expose his systemic under-reporting of helicopter flying hours.

Mr Edwardson mentioned Mr Wright’s go to to a Brisbane hospital after the crash “had nothing to do with an attempt by him to hide under-recording of helicopter flight hours”.

“He was there out of genuine concern for the welfare of Sebastian Robinson, who had been so badly injured,” he mentioned.

“It seems to be common ground that anybody who saw Sebastian in that hospital, in that state, was genuinely and emotionally traumatised by how confronting those injuries were.

“To say in any other case is just not true.”

Mr Edwardson said a covert recording of Mr Wright allegedly instructing his friend, Jai Tomlinson, to destroy evidence was “so poor in high quality that it’s all however incomprehensible”.

“I counsel to you that each Mr Wright and Mr Tomlinson had been clearly pissed [intoxicated],” he mentioned.

“You hear audibly, Mr Wright belching occasionally in that recording; their speech is slurred, their musings clearly don’t mirror sober thought.

“I defy you, even with the superhuman capabilities of the prosecution in this case, I defy you to make any sense of that conversation.”

As to Mr Wright’s alleged lies about whether or not he noticed gasoline within the crashed helicopter’s tank, Mr Edwardson mentioned “he was doing his best to assist police after what had been an incredibly traumatic event”.

“In any event, it is quite frankly difficult to see, if not absurd to think, that his opinion about what he thinks he saw … could have deflected anybody from anything, let alone a police investigation.

“This cost goes completely nowhere and it ought to be dismissed.”

A ‘miracle within the courtroom’

Mr Edwardson told the jury it gave him “no pleasure to cross-examine a younger man who has misplaced his legs in a deadly helicopter crash”, but said it had been necessary to expose Mr Robinson’s motive to protect himself “by pointing the finger at Matt Wright”.

But Mr Edwardson said while Mr Wright “couldn’t presumably have identified that legal prices is likely to be laid regarding the crash”, Mr Robinson “was within the crosshairs for a cost of manslaughter”.

Mr Edwardson pointed the jury to evidence that the pilot had traces of cocaine in his blood at the time of the crash and differing accounts as to whether the downed chopper had been refuelled.

“If ever there was an individual that had an incentive to try to deflect from his conduct, it was him and his prolonged household,” he mentioned.

“[That is] fairly understandably, can I counsel, why the collective clan would have been extraordinarily involved concerning the very actual prospect that Sebastian Robinson is likely to be held accountable for flying that plane excessive on cocaine and failing to refuel it.”

Meanwhile, Mr Edwardson said the traumatic brain injury Mr Robinson suffered in the crash had not stopped him deleting messages from his phone and lying to police “when it suited his function”.

“Contrast that with the traumatic mind harm card that was performed repeatedly when being cross-examined on this courtroom,” he mentioned.

“Ladies and gents, you noticed a real miracle on this courtroom, when [Crown prosecutor] ‘Pope’ Jason Gullaci rose to his toes and reworked the incapacitated, traumatic mind harm right into a fluent, coherent capability to reply with none obstacle.”

The jury will now deliberate for as long as it takes to reach verdicts on each of the three charges, with Acting Justice Alan Blow previously flagging the possibility of them sitting through the weekend.

Loading