Supreme Court jury hears TV star deleted notes from hospitalised pilot’s phone

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Laying in a hospital bed after surviving a serious chopper accident in remote Arnhem Land, pilot Sebastian Robinson received a visit from his then-employer, Matt Wright. What the pair discussed was today under scrutiny in Mr Wright's Supreme Court trial.  Mr Wright has pleaded not guilty three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice for allegedly interfering with an investigation into the 2022 crash which claimed the life of his Outback Wrangler co-star, Chris Wilson.

Transcript

00:00In a tense and dramatic second day of evidence, former pilot Sebastian Robinson revealing why

00:08Matt Wright wasn't involved in the egg collecting mission on the day of the accident.

00:13The witness telling the court he was common knowledge Mr Wright was unvaccinated and couldn't

00:18work in Arnhem Land due to COVID-19 restrictions in place at the time. Was there a reason why in

00:24February 2022 Mr Wright was not part of the egg collecting mission? Yes. What was that? Because

00:31he was an anti-vaxxer. Under scrutiny today, two visits Mr Wright made to Sebastian Robinson while

00:37he lay in the hospital bed in Brisbane, suffering a severed spinal cord and broken neck. Mr Robinson

00:43told the court during the first visit, 11 days after the accident, Mr Wright asked him to manipulate

00:49flight records by transferring hours from records of the crashed chopper to his own helicopter.

00:55What did you say to Mr Wright when he asked you to do this during the hospital visit on the 11th of

01:00March 2022? I was still in a pretty bad way and I was very confused and I knew something wasn't right

01:07and I said I'd think about it from memory. Mr Robinson told the court he remembers seeing his

01:12phone in Mr Wright's hands, recalling him flicking through it and deleting things. Mr Robinson also

01:19said he vaguely remembers deleting notes pertaining to previous egg collecting missions. When asked

01:24why, he said he was scared and didn't know who to trust. This afternoon it was Matt Wright's

01:30barrister's turn to ask questions. David Edwardson pressed the witness about his role in Matt Wright's

01:36company and whether he ever supplied alcohol to remote Aboriginal communities. Do you deny that at any

01:42stage you were supplying alcohol to Indigenous members of the remote communities that you would fly

01:47into? In a commercial way? No no just supplying. There might have been an occasion where I had a

01:53very small amount of alcohol under the seat of the helicopter but I wasn't supplying a commercial

01:58amount. What about marijuana? No. Under cross-examination Mr Robinson agreed he lied during interviews with

02:06police and investigators from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority saying he panicked and was in a bad

02:12way. When asked about his use of cocaine Mr Robinson maintained he used the drug a couple of times

02:19a year. Mr Robinson will continue to face cross-examination tomorrow.

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