The first witnesses in the month-long criminal trial of television star Matt Wright have given evidence in the Northern Territory supreme court. Mr wright has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice for allegedly interfering with the investigation into a helicopter crash which killed his friend and outback wrangler co-star Chris 'Willow' Wilson in 2022.
00:00It was an emotional morning here at the Northern Territory Supreme Court in Darwin, the first witness to give evidence in the trial of Matt Wright took the stand, and that is a man by the name of Michael Burns.
00:14He is a prominent Northern Territory businessman and crocodile farmer here in the NT, and he fought back tears as he recounted the events of February 28, 2022, the day that chopper carrying Chris Willow Wilson and Sebastian Robinson crashed near the King River in a remote part of the Northern Territory during an ill-fated crocodile egg-collecting mission.
00:38Now, Mick Burns operated the company that was involved in that mission, and he recounted receiving messages that there had been an accident and then flying out to the scene of the crash alongside Matt Wright.
00:52He also became extremely emotional, as he described, having to sit with the body of Chris Wilson at the scene of the accident and then travelling with him in the care flight chopper back to hospital in Darwin.
01:05During the course of his evidence, Prosecutor Jason Galacci asked Mr Burns a number of questions about what happened at the scene of the accident.
01:13One thing that he recounts was being given the mobile phone of Chris Willow Wilson.
01:20He said he doesn't remember who gave it to him, but he held onto it and then gave it back to Chris Wilson's mum by the time they got back to Darwin when he was taken to hospital the night of the accident.
01:31Today's proceedings began with the opening remarks from the defence, Matt Wright's lawyer, David Edwardson, giving a fairly brief address to the jury following on from the opening address from the prosecution yesterday.
01:45He said that his client emphatically denies all of the allegations against him and he warned the jury about some of the ill-informed and scandalous reports that had been circulating in the media and on social media about this case and Mr Wright.
02:02He reminded the jury that there's two sides to every coin and really encouraged them to apply themselves in a dedicated way to the course of the trial and to really only pay attention to the evidence that they hear inside the courtroom.
02:16What is becoming clear over the last two days is that there is a great deal in this case and in this story that is agreed between the prosecution and the defence.
02:27There's a long list of facts that are not disputed and really the three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice rely on very specific and narrow evidence.
02:36And so in light of that, Mr Wright's lawyer, David Edwardson, told the jury that they would need to apply intellectual rigour to this case in order to really scrutinise the evidence that they're going to be hearing over the coming weeks.
02:50Prosecutor Jason Galacci also finished his opening remarks this morning and one of the things that he foreshadowed that the jury would hear are snippets of recordings taken from covert recording devices placed inside Mr Wright's home.
03:04And it's those recordings that the prosecution are relying on to establish the basis of the third count of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
03:15And what the prosecution allege is that in those recordings, Mr Wright was allegedly discussing burning or torching helicopter records.
03:24The defence has said that that is not what the conversation was about and averged the jury to be very sceptical about that evidence when they hear it over the coming days.
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