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  • 6 months ago
The pilot who survived the fatal chopper crash at the centre of Matt Wright's criminal trial has admitted to supplying "very minimal" amounts of cocaine to friends prior to the accident. Sebastian Robinson — who was left a paraplegic after the 2022 helicopter accident — was cross-examined for several hours in the Northern Territory Supreme Court by Mr Wright's barrister. Mr Wright has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice over allegations he interfered with an investigation into the chopper crash.

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00:00Filing in to hear day three of evidence from the pilot who survived the helicopter crash
00:08at the heart of Matt Wright's criminal trial, Mr Wright's barrister David Edwardson KC
00:14relentless interrogating the witness about a series of text messages downloaded from
00:19Mr Robinson's phone written in the years leading up to 2022, mostly about drugs.
00:26In one text exchange read to the court, Mr Robinson told a friend might have to come
00:31down Monday, crook as a dog, his friend texting back, snorting too much coke out of Maddie's
00:36arse bro. At one stage, Mr Robinson asked, are you implying I'm a drug dealer? Yes. No. You
00:44sourced cocaine, you supplied it to somebody else, you get paid for it. That's trafficking. You agree?
00:49I don't understand what trafficking is, but I'm putting people in connection with each other.
00:53After the texts came the videos, Mr Wright's lawyer tendering a USB drive containing 11 clips,
01:00some appearing to show Mr Robinson sharing alcohol with an Aboriginal ranger in Arnhem Land
01:06and joking about being high. Mr Robinson, who suffered a brain injury as a result of the
01:12accident, has told the court he has little to no memory of the days leading up to the accident.
01:18David Edwardson today pressed the witness about this fact, asking if he could in fact
01:23recall attending a party and doing drugs just two days before the accident. Mr Robinson told
01:29the court he could not recall.
01:32You don't even remember being there? No, I don't. And you've got no recollection of where
01:37you were and how it was that you came to have cocaine in your system at the time of the crash?
01:42No, I have no recollection of the weeks prior to the accident.
01:45Mr Robinson gave evidence he had no memory of the chopper being refuelled before the crash.
01:51In an interview with police, however, he told investigators the chopper definitely didn't
01:56run out of fuel. Mr Edwardson suggested to the witness that he was worried he hadn't refuelled the
02:02helicopter and would be blamed for the death of Chris Willow Wilson. Mr Robinson agreed he did have
02:08concerns, but said he knew in his heart that wasn't the reason the chopper went down.
02:13Fatigued after three days of questioning, court adjourned early today. Mr Robinson will return
02:20for his fourth and final day of evidence tomorrow.
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