Fallen reality television star Matt Wright will spend tonight behind bars after being sentenced in the Northern Territory Supreme Court today for obstructing investigations into a fatal chopper crash.<\/p>\n
The Outback Wrangler host was found guilty in August on two counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice following the helicopter crash that killed his Netflix co-star Chris Wilson in 2022.<\/p>\n
Each count carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n NT Police charged Wright in November 2022 and he has been on bail ever since.<\/p>\n The Top End tourism operator arrived at court on Friday morning with his legal team, wife Kaia and the couple\u2019s friends.<\/p>\n On Friday afternoon, following hours of oral submissions from the crown and defence, Acting Justice Alan Blow sentenced Wright to five months in prison.<\/p>\n Justice Blow, from Tasmania, sentenced Wright to a head sentence of 10 months, suspended after five months.<\/p>\n \u201cOn count one, you\u2019re convicted and fined $5000,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cOn count two, you\u2019re convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for 10 months.<\/p>\n \u201cI order that the sentence be suspended after you have served five months thereof.\u201d<\/p>\n Justice Blow said Wright\u2019s lies to police, in relation to how much fuel was in the destroyed chopper\u2019s tank, were \u201cspontaneous and unplanned\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my view, although your answers to the police about the state of the fuel were dishonest, they were consistent with the truth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe that the true situation was that there was fuel in the tank when the helicopter\u2019s engine stopped.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of it may very well have drained away by the time you looked in the fuel tank, if that is what you did.<\/p>\n \u201cI accept the tendency of your conduct in the police interview to pervert any investigation was not strong.\u201d<\/p>\n Justice Blow said count two, pressuring pilot Sebastian Robinson to falsify flight records from his hospital bed, was a \u201cmuch more serious charge\u201d and involved planning.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a serious attempt to pervert the course of justice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s significant that you had the callousness to make and pursue this request when Mr Robinson had recently come out of a coma and had just learned that he was unlikely ever to walk again.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the worst possible time to put any pressure on him. He was heavily medicated and very vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n Justice Blow said there was a need for general deterrence.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t see any significant need for personal deterrence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s true that you\u2019ve shown no remorse, but I think you\u2019re very unlikely to reoffend in any significant way in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Wright pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice when his trial commenced in July.<\/p>\n The charges related to his actions in the seven months after the chopper crash that killed Wilson and left pilot Sebastian Robinson paraplegic.<\/p>\n The 46-year-old was accused of lying to police about how much fuel was in the helicopter\u2019s tank at the crash site, pressuring the critically injured pilot to falsify flight records from his hospital bed and telling a mate to \u201ctorch\u201d the destroyed aircraft\u2019s maintenance release after authorities had demanded Wright surrender the document.<\/p>\n After hearing 13 days of evidence, the jury found Wright guilty of the first two charges and, after reaching a deadlock, were discharged on the third count in relation to the aircraft\u2019s missing maintenance release.<\/p>\n Following the verdicts, the prosecution and defence made written sentencing submissions to Justice Blow and on Friday, both parties made oral submissions in court.<\/p>\n Prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC said the crown\u2019s \u201cultimate submission\u201d was that Wright should serve \u201ca term of actual, immediate imprisonment\u201d to reflect the seriousness of his offending.<\/p>\n \u201cCounts one and two concern attempts by Mr Wright to obstruct and to impede the investigation into a helicopter crash which killed Christopher Wilson and seriously injured Sebastian Robinson,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWright intended these actions to prevent charges being laid against him or his companies in relation to the crash itself.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wanted to avoid any prospect of being prosecuted on the basis that his conduct had caused the helicopter to crash.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Gullaci said Wright\u2019s concern was that the \u201csystemic under-recording of flight hours, which was the conduct he engaged in prior to the crash, would be found by investigators to have caused the helicopter to crash\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe helicopter that was involved in the crash, IDW, had done more than 2200 hours being the trigger at which a major overhaul should have occurred, costing upwards of a half a million dollars, or it should have been retired,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mr Gullaci said Wright had demonstrated \u201can absence of remorse or contrition and an absence, in my submission, of any insight\u201d.<\/p>\n Mr Wright\u2019s lawyer Luke Officer said his client should not be sentenced for \u201cwhatever regulatory CASA or ATSB offenses\u201d he had committed.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is not to be sentenced because he is Matt Wright,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is not to be sentenced because of his celebrity status.<\/p>\n \u201cThe defence maintains that the responsibility in relation to this particular accident falls at the feet of Sebastian Robinson.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Robinson, 32, was flying the chopper owned and operated by Wright\u2019s company Helibrook when it crashed, during a crocodile egg collecting mission, at West Arnhem Land in February 2022.<\/p>\n Wilson, 34, was slinging on a 100-foot line beneath the chopper when it lost power.<\/p>\n Mr Robinson told the court he released Wilson\u2019s sling line from the chopper to avoid \u201crag-dolling\u201d him through the trees and landing on top of him.<\/p>\n Mr Officer argued a wholly suspended sentence or an intensive community corrections order with home detention would be the appropriate punishment.<\/p>\n The Darwin-based lawyer said his client is of good character and has \u201cexcellent\u201d prospects of rehabilitation.<\/p>\n \u201cThese proceedings have been financially devastating for him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is just making ends meet, by the skin of his teeth, through his tourism operations.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is teetering on the edge of financial ruin.\u201d<\/p>\n The court heard Wright\u2019s lucrative income streams \u2013 including sponsorship deals and crocodile egg collecting contracts \u2013 had become \u201ctrickles\u201d since the crash.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not going to rebuild, your honour, if he\u2019s sitting in a cell,\u201d Mr Officer said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd again, he\u2019s not a danger to the community.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a sentence that the community could expect.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Officer read out a number of character references from friends including country music star Lee Kernaghan and Wright\u2019s talent agent Nick Fordham.<\/p>\n Wright plans to appeal his guilty verdicts but a valid application has not yet been filed.<\/p>\n Wright\u2019s third charge \u2013 on which the jury was \u201chopelessly deadlocked\u201d \u2013 remains under consideration by the NT\u2019s director of public prosecutions, who will decide whether to retry the charge after Wright\u2019s appeal is resolved.<\/p>\n Meanwhile Wilson\u2019s widow Danielle \u2013 who was not in court on Friday \u2013 is suing Wright, his insolvent company Helibrook and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority in the federal court over her husband\u2019s death.<\/p>\n Wright will spend tonight in custody at the Darwin Correctional Centre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fallen reality television star Matt Wright will spend tonight behind bars after being sentenced in the Northern 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