August 31, 2025 • 5 mins
Famed Australian crocodile wrangler Matt Wright has been found guilty of lying to police and pressuring a hospitalised witness after a fatal helicopter crash.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jersey and Amanda gam Nation from the Daily Oz. M
Gillespie is here with that entertainment. Matt Right, the croc Hunter.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
The Wrangler Outback Wrangler. Matt Wright. He was an Australian
wildlife expert also a tourism mogul of the top end.
And he has been sentenced or not yet sentenced, but
he's been found guilty on two counts of perverting the
course of justice. We've had a three and a half
week trial all to do with this evidence tampering relating
(00:29):
to a twenty twenty two helicopter crash. So you might
be familiar with this story. Chris Willow, Chris Wilson, his
nickname was Willow, and a pilot, Sebastian Robinson, were traveling
on a helicopter on a crocodile egg collecting mission in
Arnam Land in feb twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
This is where someone hangs from the bottom of the
helicopter and scoops the eggs out.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yes, so he was suspended about thirty meters below the aircraft.
The chopper went down, he died. The pilot was seriously injured.
He's now paraplegic. He suffered a brain injury as well.
And Matt Wright, who owned the helicopter. He owned a
tourism company and the helicopter was part of that. He
was charged not for causing the crash, but over his
(01:12):
attempts to pervert the course of justice. So all of
these proceedings have to do with how Matt Wright behaved
in the aftermath of the crash in the days and
weeks after. So no one is suggesting that he caused
the helicopter crash. But the picture that has been painted
over the course of these proceedings is that he was
running a bit of a shonky.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Show and that terms of maintenance.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
In terms of maintenance, record keeping, just fraudulent activity allegedly,
and that he sort of sought to cover all of
that up because he knew that there would be a
spotlight on his company and on its practices following the crash.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
There's frontier territory up there as well.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
And those guys with the helicopters, they're kind of cavalier
about stuff.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
I've seen.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I've seen those guys how they operate, and they're pretty
cow boy.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
They're loose Esentially, if you're a croc hunter and a
crockad and.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
That's what I was about. The braver in the risk TAE.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Would probably be the same a helicopter.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
I'd probably be the same. If you're dangling from a helicopter,
why not.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
But having said that, there are strict rules around how
often your helicopter is.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
When you look at what they're doing, I thought it
was a conservative for like conserving crocodile eggs and stuff,
but it's actually a business. But they land the helicopter
into the nest and the dude scoops the eggs out.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
But that's not what this case is.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
The case, Yeah, the case is about this kind of
long standing pattern of under recording flight hours, instruments on
the helicopters being disabled, they're not being enough fuel or
not being fuel logs to appropriately track the fuel that
was in the helicopter at the time. And at the
crash scene there were these witnesses. One was an off
duty police officer. He appeared on the witness stand. Others
(02:54):
testified about removing log books from the pilots home, from
right arms to his staff to torch files. But there
were three charges, all kind of in the realm of
evidence tampering, and he's only been found guilty on two counts,
so that relates to lying about the fuel in the
helicopter and manipulating flight records. But this other charge, which
(03:15):
was about his alleged attempts to destroy other maintenance records,
that count remains unresolved and it's not clear if we're.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Ever going to get an answer on that one.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
He took the jury six hours to find Matt Wright
guilty on those other two counts, but they were deadlocked
on the torching the records.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
So we just don't know what's going to happen there.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
But over the course of the trial, we heard witnesses
talk about Matt Wright pressuring them, manipulating them. He visited
the pilot in hospital when he was seriously injured recovering
from this horrific crash and allegedly tried to intimidate him
into deleting messages. Came back, revisited him and said, you
know you're going to delete those messages? Have you thought
(03:54):
about what I said? We're all going to get in
trouble if you don't play ball on this. But then
on the other side, the fence tried to paint a
picture of a really kind of rowdy cowboy pilot who
had a drug problem and who would often fly under
the influence of drugs. So it was the real kind
of spectacle.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
And the friendships have all split, haven't they because they
were all friends and now it's all over.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And the widow of the guy on the plane, who's
the helicopter who passed away, she has welcomed the verdict.
She have a really moving statement outside court last week.
She said, you know, they're heading into their fourth Father's
Day without their son's dad.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
She's got two little boys. But she's also separately suing
Matt Wright in civil proceedings and the aviation authority to
try to get, you know, maybe some compensation for the
life that they're now living without their dad. Will he
go to prison?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
So he's facing seven years for the evidence tampering stuff.
The sentencing is kind of on the rocks because he's
vowed to appeal. So if Matt Wright does appeal, then
this could be you know, months or years more of
unanswered questions if he went straight to sentence. Yeah, looking
at about seven years, but that third charge being so
(05:04):
up in the air really casts a lot of doubt
over what happens next.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Gee, just check your records, you think about that.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, if he just kept his books straight, you know,
and hadn't tampered with anything after this horrific crash, it
would have been a tragedy.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
But you know, that's probably where it would have stayed.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And thank you, thank you.
Jersey and Amanda gam Nation from the Daily Oz. M
Gillespie is here with that entertainment. Matt Right, the croc Hunter.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
The Wrangler Outback Wrangler. Matt Wright. He was an Australian
wildlife expert also a tourism mogul of the top end.
And he has been sentenced or not yet sentenced, but
he's been found guilty on two counts of perverting the
course of justice. We've had a three and a half
week trial all to do with this evidence tampering relating
(00:29):
to a twenty twenty two helicopter crash. So you might
be familiar with this story. Chris Willow, Chris Wilson, his
nickname was Willow, and a pilot, Sebastian Robinson, were traveling
on a helicopter on a crocodile egg collecting mission in
Arnam Land in feb twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
This is where someone hangs from the bottom of the
helicopter and scoops the eggs out.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yes, so he was suspended about thirty meters below the aircraft.
The chopper went down, he died. The pilot was seriously injured.
He's now paraplegic. He suffered a brain injury as well.
And Matt Wright, who owned the helicopter. He owned a
tourism company and the helicopter was part of that. He
was charged not for causing the crash, but over his
(01:12):
attempts to pervert the course of justice. So all of
these proceedings have to do with how Matt Wright behaved
in the aftermath of the crash in the days and
weeks after. So no one is suggesting that he caused
the helicopter crash. But the picture that has been painted
over the course of these proceedings is that he was
running a bit of a shonky.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Show and that terms of maintenance.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
In terms of maintenance, record keeping, just fraudulent activity allegedly,
and that he sort of sought to cover all of
that up because he knew that there would be a
spotlight on his company and on its practices following the crash.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
There's frontier territory up there as well.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
And those guys with the helicopters, they're kind of cavalier
about stuff.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
I've seen.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I've seen those guys how they operate, and they're pretty
cow boy.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
They're loose Esentially, if you're a croc hunter and a
crockad and.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
That's what I was about. The braver in the risk TAE.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Would probably be the same a helicopter.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
I'd probably be the same. If you're dangling from a helicopter,
why not.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
But having said that, there are strict rules around how
often your helicopter is.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
When you look at what they're doing, I thought it
was a conservative for like conserving crocodile eggs and stuff,
but it's actually a business. But they land the helicopter
into the nest and the dude scoops the eggs out.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
But that's not what this case is.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
The case, Yeah, the case is about this kind of
long standing pattern of under recording flight hours, instruments on
the helicopters being disabled, they're not being enough fuel or
not being fuel logs to appropriately track the fuel that
was in the helicopter at the time. And at the
crash scene there were these witnesses. One was an off
duty police officer. He appeared on the witness stand. Others
(02:54):
testified about removing log books from the pilots home, from
right arms to his staff to torch files. But there
were three charges, all kind of in the realm of
evidence tampering, and he's only been found guilty on two counts,
so that relates to lying about the fuel in the
helicopter and manipulating flight records. But this other charge, which
(03:15):
was about his alleged attempts to destroy other maintenance records,
that count remains unresolved and it's not clear if we're.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Ever going to get an answer on that one.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
He took the jury six hours to find Matt Wright
guilty on those other two counts, but they were deadlocked
on the torching the records.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
So we just don't know what's going to happen there.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
But over the course of the trial, we heard witnesses
talk about Matt Wright pressuring them, manipulating them. He visited
the pilot in hospital when he was seriously injured recovering
from this horrific crash and allegedly tried to intimidate him
into deleting messages. Came back, revisited him and said, you
know you're going to delete those messages? Have you thought
(03:54):
about what I said? We're all going to get in
trouble if you don't play ball on this. But then
on the other side, the fence tried to paint a
picture of a really kind of rowdy cowboy pilot who
had a drug problem and who would often fly under
the influence of drugs. So it was the real kind
of spectacle.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
And the friendships have all split, haven't they because they
were all friends and now it's all over.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And the widow of the guy on the plane, who's
the helicopter who passed away, she has welcomed the verdict.
She have a really moving statement outside court last week.
She said, you know, they're heading into their fourth Father's
Day without their son's dad.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
She's got two little boys. But she's also separately suing
Matt Wright in civil proceedings and the aviation authority to
try to get, you know, maybe some compensation for the
life that they're now living without their dad. Will he
go to prison?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
So he's facing seven years for the evidence tampering stuff.
The sentencing is kind of on the rocks because he's
vowed to appeal. So if Matt Wright does appeal, then
this could be you know, months or years more of
unanswered questions if he went straight to sentence. Yeah, looking
at about seven years, but that third charge being so
(05:04):
up in the air really casts a lot of doubt
over what happens next.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Gee, just check your records, you think about that.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, if he just kept his books straight, you know,
and hadn't tampered with anything after this horrific crash, it
would have been a tragedy.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
But you know, that's probably where it would have stayed.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And thank you, thank you.
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