Reality TV star ‘wanted pilot’s phone’ after crash
Lloyd Jones |
Reality TV star Matt Wright told an associate to collect the phone of a severely injured pilot following a fatal helicopter crash, a jury has heard.
The Outback Wrangler star has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice in the Supreme Court in Darwin.
The charges follow a helicopter crash in February 2022 that killed Wright’s friend and co-star Chris “Willow” Wilson on a crocodile-egg collecting mission in the Northern Territory’s Arnhem Land.
Pilot Sebastian Robinson, now 32, was left a paraplegic after the crash.
On Monday, his partner Rhanii Lee told the court by video link she visited a heavily sedated Mr Robinson in a Brisbane hospital in the days after the crash.
Ms Lee told the court she met the pilot’s colleague, Tim Johnson, at the hospital and he had cried after seeing Mr Robinson in the ICU.
“He was just saying that he couldn’t believe this had happened, how heartbreaking it was to see Sebastian.”
Ms Lee said Mr Johnson had asked for a maintenance form for the crashed aircraft or a logbook and it was handed to him by a family member.
“He said Matt also mentioned to grab Sebby’s phone and we thought ‘no’, so we didn’t hand him the phone.”
Ms Lee said Mr Johnson left the hospital with the document, but Mr Robinson’s mother or aunt rang him and asked him to return it, which he did.
Prosecutors allege Wright was worried after the crash that investigators would learn his choppers’ meters were regularly disconnected to extend flying hours beyond official thresholds and that paperwork was falsified.
One of the charges against Wright is that he tried to get Mr Robinson to transfer flying hours from the crashed machine to his own chopper when he visited him in hospital 11 days after the accident.
The charges do not relate to the cause of the accident and the prosecution does not allege Wright is responsible for the crash, Mr Wilson’s death or Mr Robinson’s injuries.
Under cross-examination from senior defence counsel David Edwardson KC, Ms Lee said she and Mr Robinson had gone to a party two days before the crash and that she had not seen him snort lines of cocaine there.
The defence has painted Mr Robinson as a cocaine-using “party animal”, but when giving evidence last week he denied ever flying helicopters while high.
Ms Lee agreed that email exchanges between her and Mr Robinson when he was in hospital showed that family members had smuggled in beer for him.
Mr Edwardson has previously told the jury there were serious questions of credibility surrounding testimony from Mr Robinson’s family.
Acting Justice Allan Blow adjourned proceedings until 10am on Tuesday for legal argument and sent the jury home.
AAP
