Sky News Darwin Bureau Chief Matt Cunningham says Matt Wright’s Defence Barrister will deliver his closing remarks to the jury in his Supreme Court trial this morning, adding that the jury could start deliberations as early as this afternoon

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jurors in the Matte Wright criminal trial were earlier this
week warn not to get caught up in the emotion
of the tragic fatal accident or to be swayed by
the saturation of media coverage on the case. Now we
know that Jason Galachi sc delivered his closing address yesterday,
the defense expected to do theirs today. Joining us on

(00:21):
the line, Sky News Bureau Chief for the Northern Territory,
Matt Cunningham, Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Matt, Morning, Kay, Matt.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
What's happened over the last day or so?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, Matt Wright and his legal team have just arrived
this morning ahead of the defense's closing arguments to the jury,
which will happen this morning. Over the past day and
a half or so, we've heard the prosecution giving its
closing arguments, So the Crown prosecuted Jason Glashi is basically
outlined again to the jury the Crown's case and argued

(00:56):
why the prosecution believes Matt Right to be found guilty
on these three charges of attempting to pervert the course
of justice. He basically, over the past day and a
half took the jury through the prosecution's case and the
background to the case. So essentially that is that Matt
Wright's company, Hallybrook, which owned the helicopter that was involved

(01:18):
in this crash, had been under recording the flying hours
of that machine. It's a practice that the court has
heard with pated League is common in the Northern Territories
aviation industry, and it's done by disconnecting what's known as
the Hobbs Meet that records the helicopter's hours. So the
prosecution alleges that Matt Wright knew that this helicopter involved

(01:38):
in the crash. If it had had it two hours
recorded properly, it would have exceeded twenty two hundred hours.
And that's the point at which a helicopter liked the
one involved in the crash, an R forty four Robinson Raven,
needs to be either retired or completely overhauled, and that
costs about four to five hundred thousand dollars. So the

(01:59):
prosecution alleges that Matt Wright knew that was the case,
and that when the helicopter crashed, he set about trying
to cover up that fact from investigators, and that's why
he's facing these three charges of attempting to pervert the
course of juxtae Ja I think Lartie took the jury
through each of the first charges, each of the three charges.

(02:21):
So the first one is an allegation that matt Wright
liked to police in a statement he gave them an
oral stat Decky gave three days after the crash when
he said that there was half a tank of fuel
in the helicopter. And then he subsequently took the jury
to recorded conversations that matt Wright had with his wife
Kaya and others where he had been secretly recorded saying

(02:41):
there was no fuel in the helicopter. So that's basically
the substance of the first charge. The second charge relates
to the allegations that he went to the Brisbane hospital
where the pilots of Asian Robinson was recovering on the
eleventh and the thirteenth of March and tried to get
him to falsify documents relating to id W, which is
a helicopter involved in that crash. And then the third

(03:04):
charge relates to allegations that he told his friend Jai
Tomlinson to destroy the maintenance release, which is the official
documentation relating to that helicopter that was involved in the crash. Now,
that third charge relies on secretly recorded conversations that were
taken at Matt Wright's home after police put a recording

(03:27):
device there. The prosecutor, Jason Glacier, conceded that the quality
of the recordings was not great, but he said to
the jury, basically, if you can make out in those
recordings the words quote just torture, all the words just
burn the see you next Tuesday, then you should find

(03:47):
then then they should find Matt guilty. Matt right guilty
on that third charge. He wrapped up his closing argument
yesterday by saying that the prosecution's case was that Matt
Wright should be found guilty on all three of those charges. Today,
we'll hear from David Edwardson Casey. So Matt writes barrister,

(04:07):
Now he is going to argue that Matt Wright should
be acquitted on all pre charges. That's expected to take
two hours this morning, Katie or thereabouts. We'll then hear
the closing remarks from the judge, his final instructions to
the jury, and then we'll hear the jury retire. Now. Interestingly,
yesterday we heard the judge say that the jury could

(04:29):
potentially sit until six pm today, and so there is
a possibility we might get a verdict very late this afternoon.
Otherwise they're back. Otherwise they're back tomorrow. And he's even
flagged the judge even flagged the possibility yesterday that the
jury could sit well into the evening tomorrow when it

(04:51):
comes to reaching his verdict, and even sit on Saturday.
If they don't reach avertict by Friday night, it.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Just depends how quickly they come to that verdict.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
That's exactly right, That's exactly right. So but all expectations
are is that the jury will go out this afternoon
after the defense has put its case and put its
closing arguments to the jury, and then the final instructions
have come from the judge.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
That is it usual for the prosecution to sort of
take quite a long time in their closing address and
then you know, and then the defense really flagging that
they're on these sort of going to be a couple
of hours.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Look to be honest with you, Katie, I haven't sat
in that many criminal trials, so I'm not an expert
on things. I don't think it's unusual from what I
can gather, but certainly what's happening here by the time
the prosecutor finished it, gone for almost a day and

(05:52):
a half, certainly a day and a bit, and the
defense's flagged that he can take about two hours this morning.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
Well that interesting, so no doubt we'll be talking to
you again in the very near future. Thank you as
always for your help and thanks for all your coverage
on this case and helping us out with it.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
No worries JU guys.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
Thanks mate,