Matt Wright trial: Netflix croc star lied to police to ‘save his own arse’ says prosecutor in closing address

Croc-wrangler Matt Wright tried to “neutralise” investigations into a fatal chopper crash because he wanted to “protect his own arse” following the death of his Netflix co-star, a jury has been told. Mr Wright is fighting three counts in the NT Supreme Court of attempting to pervert the course of justice over the crash that killed Chris Wilson and left pilot Sebastian Robinson paraplegic.

In his closing address, crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci argued that one reason Mr Wright immediately flew to the NT crash site was to check if the Hobbs meter, which recorded his helicopter’s flying hours, was connected.

“There is no doubt that Mr Wright went to the crash scene to see if he could assist his friends who had been involved in this crash but there was another purpose,” he said.

“There was a purpose because he was concerned . . . about what investigators might find if they’d just turned up at the scene.

“There was a real possibility based on the way things were done at Helibrook leading up to the accident that the Hobbs meter would be disconnected and that if investigators turned up to have a look at the crashed helicopter that’s what they would find.”

Mr Gullaci said checking to see if the meter was connected in the destroyed chopper is what triggered his alleged offending.

“He commences his actions to try and see if he can neutralise this investigation at the scene. And that gives you a real insight or window into his thinking. Because what he does is he needs to check, using his own words, if it was connected, the Hobbs meter, at the scene,” he said.

“I don’t want to too unkind to Mr Wright, but if you accept what I’m putting to you about what was operating on his state of mind, that’s pretty cool and clinical and premeditated behaviour.

“Your best friend is lying dead not too far away. Sebastian Robinson has been airlifted with life-threatening injuries. And what’s your concern — or one of them? ‘Is the Hobbs meter connected?’

“Talk about protecting your own arse, as we heard on one of the calls. That’s what we say was going on, it starts there.”

Mr Gullaci said what happened at the crash site provides an “insight into what was motivating him” and that was “to stop charges being laid”.

“We know that at the time of the crash, the Hobbs meter recorded the total time in service of 2070 hours,” he said.

“Mr Wright himself believed that the aircraft had overflown . . . about 200 hours over or about 10 per cent over. Either way, we’re getting well over the threshold of 2200 hours.”

The crown says Mr Wright allegedly attempted to obstruct investigations because he knew VH-IDW was not airworthy and he was terrified of being blamed for the fatal crash.

“These matters were operative on the mind of Matt Wright and they motivated the conduct that he engaged in to cover up the under recording of hours,” he said.

“Because if that was uncovered, and it was found that IDW had gone over 2200, there was a real prospect he might get charged in connection with what caused the crash.

“And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out how terrifying that prospect might have been when someone has been killed, and someone has been seriously life-changingly injured.

“His conduct was directed at trying to prevent an investigation from continuing such that it would uncover these practices and then who knows what might flow.”

Count one is that Mr Wright lied about how much fuel he saw in the destroyed chopper’s tank while providing a statutory declaration to police three days after the crash.

“As I’ve just said to you, whether there was in fact fuel in the tank or not is not critical to charge one,” Mr Gullaci said.

“That is, whether or not there was actually fuel in the tank when Mr Wright says that he purportedly looked into it at the scene, it doesn’t matter.

“What this charge focuses on is his state of mind when he uttered those words on 3 March 2022, twice, in two separate passages, about what the position was concerning fuel.”

The prosecutor said Mr Wright’s wife Kaia was present during the police interview

“She was there expressing opinion, intervening, answering questions. I don’t think Matt Wright had a traumatic brain injury, as I recall, on March 3. “

“But interestingly enough from that intervention by Kaia Wright where she mentions weight . . . that seems to be why Mr Wright then just volunteers his state of knowledge about fuel. He wasn’t even asked a specific question about it. He gets on the front foot.

Mr Wright responds to Kaia’s statement, ‘Yeah, there was no weight in it at all’.

“Half full — well that’s what it looked like was in the tank,” Mr Wright told police.

“I went and looked in the tanks and that’s what we could see.”

Mr Gullaci said that in subsequent covertly recorded conversations, Mr Wright infers that he lied to police.

“The subsequent recordings we are going to go show that he did not truly hold that belief and he did this to obstruct and interfere with the investigation for reasons I have already put to you,” he said.

The trial before Acting Justice Alan Blow continues. The defence is expected to deliver its closing address on Thursday morning.