INTRODUCING the case of the croc wrangler

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A crashed helicopter, a dead crocodile wrangler, and an alleged cover-up.

I'm ABC court reporter Olivana Lothoris.

And I'm Stephen Stockwell, introducing the case of the croc wrangler.

He's one of the territory's biggest stars.

Flashing cameras and waiting reporters.

As Netflix star Matt Wright fronted court.

The territory tourism operator is facing a string of charges relating to the circumstances of a chopper crash.

This was a tragic event that took the life of the crocodile egg collector.

Mr.

Wright strenuously denies any wrongdoing.

Matt Wright is a really well-known name in Darwin.

This is a guy who's got a couple of TV shows, got tourism operations, and in 2022, he ended up in the news when his best mate and TV co-star died in a helicopter crash.

The helicopter he was underneath was owned by Matt Wright's company and it was on a crocodile egg collecting mission at the time.

It's, you know.

real risky stuff, but it's not the cause of the crash, but what Matt Wright allegedly did afterwards that he's now on trial for.

He's been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice for an alleged cover-up.

Ollie, what is it about this case that has caught so many people's attention?

Well, Stocky, this case has really been a window into this wild world of crocodile egg collecting,

outback cowboys, you know, things that really even in the Northern Territory, not many people might have been exposed to, let alone in Australia or indeed the world.

I think people have this vision of the Northern Territory as this sort of uncharted, wild place.

And the people at the centre of this crash were really, you know, really deep in that whole world.

And so

really for the first time people have been able to sort of get this insight into into what that world was and the characters inside it and really at the heart of this story is this really tragic helicopter accident which claimed the life of this young father and and pilot Chris Willow Wilson and you know seriously injured another man Sebastian Robinson he was only 28 at the time and he's been left paraplegic and in a wheelchair so I think sort of the combination of, yeah, the tragedy of it, the wild nature of it, and also the people involved created this real fascination with this whole story.

And Stocky, I think the other thing that is particularly interesting or unique about this story and about this case is the closeness of the relationships of the people at the centre of it.

Matt Wright and Chris Willow Wilson weren't just co-stars.

They weren't just colleagues.

They didn't just work on this TV show together.

They were really, really close friends.

They had been friends for many, many years.

And that's something I think that does make this case a particularly emotive one.

And I do think has contributed to the immense amount of curiosity and interest in it.

Yeah.

And this all did, as you mentioned, start with a helicopter crash.

Can you talk me through what happened there?

Yeah, so this is more than three and a half years ago now, and it was the 28th of February, 2022.

Three choppers set off on this mission to this really remote and isolated part of the Northern Territory in Arnhem Land, up near the King River, and it's real croc country.

And they were there to collect crocodile eggs.

And so each of these choppers had a pilot and a person that gets hung in a sling essentially on this big long sort of rope.

And they get lowered into crocodile nests to collect these eggs.

And three choppers went out that day

and one of them didn't come back.

And it really resulted in the death of that young man, Chris Willow Wilson, and the pilot, Sebastian Robinson, was also very seriously injured as a result.

I want you to kind of take me back for a second, Ollie.

Hanging on a rope underneath a helicopter...

You know, I'm imagining a guy with a harness on just sort of being lowered onto a nest of crocodile legs to kind of basically only grab a whole bunch.

Is that what is happening here?

It sounds so crazy to think about, but that is pretty much what they're doing.

You know, it's these

like 50 to 100 foot

ropes that get like lowered down.

It's like something you'd think of, like the image that it always conjures in my mind is like out of some old-fashioned spy movie or spy cartoon of like some person getting like lowered down and they like pinch the thing and then get you know taken away it's this really like bizarre concept but um yeah that's how they collect crocodile eggs you know once upon a time uh people used to have to land a chopper in these sort of uh marshy areas and they used to have to wade through water that is inhabited by all these crocodiles, all this grass that you know goes up to the top of your head

and to find to go and seek out these nests.

And of course, that's extremely dangerous.

So the reason they do this now, the way of like going in via the air, is actually to increase the safety, even though it sounds like such a crazy thing to do.

It's actually supposed to make the whole process of collecting crocodile eggs safer for the people involved because they can just be lowered directly over the top, collect the egg, and then get airlifted out.

Wow.

What an incredible practice to collect crocodile eggs.

And I mean, you know, you're saying it's increasing the safety of it, which I'm sure it does, you know, compared to traipsing through this water that is, yeah, just, I mean, quite literally, crawling with crocodiles.

But, you know, still an incredibly dangerous act.

And, you know, this helicopter has crashed.

It's resulted in the death of Chris Willow Wilson, as you've mentioned.

And there's no suggestion Matt Wright was in any way involved in that helicopter crashing.

Like this, this trial is more about what...

he's allegedly done after that, right?

That's exactly right, Stocky.

So, yeah, there's no allegations that Matt Matt Wright was responsible in any way for this chopper going down.

There's certainly no allegations that he's responsible for the death of his friend or of the injuries suffered by Sebastian Robinson.

This is really, this whole case hinges on what he allegedly did in the days, weeks and months after that crash.

Allegedly, he tried to obstruct and interfere with an investigation that the prosecution says he knew was on foot, that he knew that it was possible that charges were going to be laid, and that he was trying to cover things up.

And that's really what

this whole trial is about.

And Matt Wright, he's, you know, after this helicopter has crashed, he's been to the crash site after this, not just by himself, he's gone there with an off-duty policeman and a guy called Mick Burns, who's who's owned the company that they were the helicopters out collecting these crock eggs for, right?

That's right, Strocky, you know, this helicopter has gone down.

Matt Wright has received news of this and immediately they go out in this helicopter to the scene of the accident.

This is literally just in the hours after this helicopter has gone down.

No one else is out there.

No one can get there.

Police can't even get there.

It's such a remote area.

And there's this sort of chaotic, messy period in the time after the accident involving, yeah, Matt Wright, this off-duty police officer, Neil Mellon,

Mick Burns, who's this very prominent businessman in the Northern Territory, as well as a couple of other men who were also out flying choppers that day.

And so what happened in that period right after this tragic accident will certainly be something that the jury is going to be hearing plenty about.

Yeah.

And I mean, you know, we've touched on Mick Burns here.

He's the guy that, you know, they're collecting the crocodile eggs for.

This may be a dumb question, but

why is he collecting crocodile eggs?

Not a dumb question at all.

It's actually a question I had myself.

It's sort of,

yeah, it's such a bizarre thing to think about.

So not a dumb question.

Crocodile egg collecting is actually a very lucrative business.

Mick Burns himself is sort of like the godfather of crocodile farming here in the Northern Territory.

Some people have referred to him as sort of the crocodile king of the NT.

He owned this massive crocodile farm,

which was in partnership with the very luxurious French fashion brand Hermes, some people might have heard of.

They do some very nice crocodile skin wallets.

And so that is essentially, that was the business that Mick Burns was operating.

And they essentially collect these crocodile legs to farm crocodiles.

So it's, if you think about cattle farming, it's like that, but the Northern Territory version.

Right.

And you've got Mick Burns, sounds like a bit of a character, if I'm honest.

And then we, yeah, we have Matt Wright, who's at the center of this trial.

And he also, a really big deal in Darwin, right?

Like him being involved in anything like this must be a huge deal.

Yeah, I mean, certainly.

He's a really iconic figure in the Northern Territory and indeed Australia and the world.

He's sort of, you know, we had Steve Irwin and then we had Matt Wright.

He's this, you know, very charismatic guy who had a very successful, two very successful TV shows.

He also has a very successful business here.

He's a businessman.

He knows lots of people in the NT.

You know, the NT is a small place, so everybody knows everyone, a really recognizable and much loved face here.

So for him to be sort of wrapped up in this, in this crash and in this trial,

yeah, no doubt, garnered a huge amount of attention.

And I mean, one of the things that this podcast has done, you know, starting as Mushroom Case Daily now as the case of, is giving people this window into our justice system that they wouldn't otherwise have, helping people learn and understand different things about how courts work and something that, I mean, I personally am really interested in learning because at the moment I don't quite have it clear in my mind what perversion of justice is.

I mean, I think I inherently kind of know what that is, but in my mind, I'm not entirely sure.

Like, what is perversion of justice?

Perverting the course of justice is essentially getting in the way of the justice process.

So in the case of Matt Wright, It's alleged that he knew this investigation into this crash was going to happen.

He knew that there was a potential that charges could be laid and the allegation is he got in the way of that.

He did things to obstruct the investigation both by the police and also aviation authorities that operate in Australia that look into things like this.

So that's essentially at the most basic level what those charges mean.

The other thing that I think is important to mention is that the actual charge is attempting to pervert the course of justice.

So that's kind of also a critical thing because it can mean that it's not just if he did get in the way of the justice process, it's if he tried to.

So that's just probably another sort of little nuancy thing just in the way that the charge is worded, but it's actually quite important to this trial process.

No, that's fantastic, Alex.

Thank you for clarifying.

And this is the value of having you in the room in Darwin, being our eyes and ears for the trial of Matt Wright.

I mean, from tomorrow, we're going to be taking people into that that room, bringing the court updates through the case I've feed.

But I mean at this stage what are the arguments that could make or break this case for Matt Wright?

So despite the fact that this is a very big complex story in one sense, the allegations and the evidence that the prosecution are relying on to get these charges over the line is very specific.

So we know that he's charged with three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

And each of those those individual three charges relates to some very specific things that Matt Wright is alleged to have done.

So we know that a couple of those things include that he spoke to the pilot, Sebastian Robinson,

just days after the accident while he was still in hospital and allegedly tried to convince him to fabricate chopper records, the records that tracked how many flight hours that crashed chopper had done.

Another one of the charges, Count 3, relies on these snippets of this covert recording taken from inside Matt Wright's home.

And in these recordings, it's alleged that he says specific words about torching or burning a particular chopper record.

So again, this very specific allegation that goes to the heart of these charges.

And you know, Stocky, one of the things that I find really fascinating about this case is that it really, like I said, is this window into this industry, which to be honest, there was a lot going on in this aviation industry in the Northern Territory that was frankly pretty dodgy.

You had pilots who were under-recording their flight hours,

maybe doing things they shouldn't have been doing with their flight logbooks.

And the reason they're doing it is to keep these choppers in the air.

They want to keep them going for as long as they can.

And as we talked about with the egg collecting, it's it's dangerous stuff.

So they're keeping these choppers alive for as long as they possibly can.

It extends how long you need to go between getting maintenance checks and things.

And that's just something that both parties say was, yeah, it was happening.

Matt Wright did it.

Other pilots did it.

And this is just, yeah, giving us this sort of insight into the culture of the aviation industry in the NT.

And that's not to say, again, that Matt Wright was responsible for the crash, but but this is something that is going to be talked about and fleshed out in this trial.

And Stocky, just to make sure that it's clear where this narrative fits into the case, the prosecution have essentially framed this as being a motive.

for why Matt Wright then went and allegedly tried to interfere with the investigation after the crash.

So this tampering with flight meters or messing about with logbooks is not actually what Matt Wright is charged with.

The prosecution have framed it more as the reason for his concern and therefore why he went and tried to get in the way of the investigation.

They say that he was concerned that through the investigation into this crash that police or aviation authorities would find out about some of the things that was going on within his business.

And so that's why he tried to interfere.

Of course, it's important to emphasize that that Matt Wright categorically and emphatically denies all of those allegations against him.

Yeah, it's such an incredible story.

I mean, such an incredible location, the country that this is happening in, the work they're doing, so dangerous.

And then having this layered on top is just...

Such a wild story.

Ollie, I'm really looking forward to diving into the actual kind of court reporting, understanding what is happening as this trial is being heard in Darwin from tomorrow.

If you have any questions about this case, please get in touch.

The caseov at abc.net.au.

We love hearing from you.

We love all your questions.

So don't hesitate to reach out if there's something you're not sure about.

We'll be putting it straight to Ollie, your eyes and ears inside the Northern Territory Supreme Court.

And don't forget to jump onto the ABC Listen app as well.

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So find your way to your favorite app store, grab the app, and you'll get myself and Ollie in your ears before you can anywhere else.

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So more people are able to find the incredible story of Matt Wright.

The case of The Crock Wrangler is produced by ABC Audio Studios and ABC News.

It's presented by me, Olivana Lothoris and Stephen Stockwell.

Our executive producer is Claire Rawlinson and a big thank you to our True Crime colleagues, our Commissioning Executive Producer Tim Roxborough and Supervising producer Yasmin Parry.

This episode was produced on the land of the Larakea and Wurundjeri people.

Hi, Jules and Jez here.

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