Famed Australian crocodile wrangler Matt Wright has been found guilty of lying to police and pressuring a hospitalised witness after a fatal helicopter crash.
The former Netflix star was charged with three counts of perverting the course of justice over the crocodile egg harvesting disaster in 2022. A jury on Friday returned guilty verdicts for two but could not agree on the third.
Wright’s friend and Outback Wrangler co-star Chris “Willow” Wilson, who was suspended from the aircraft in a sling, died when it hit the ground. Pilot Sebastian Robinson was also seriously injured.
Prosecutors argued Wright had tried to tamper with evidence out of fear of being blamed for the crash.
Wright had pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his lawyers have already flagged they intend to appeal the verdict – which was delivered by the jury on his 46th birthday.
Walking out of the courthouse on Friday, Wright told reporters that he was “pretty disappointed in the verdict” but would “keep moving forward with this”.
“It’s been devastating for everyone involved,” he added.
While Wright was not on board during the crash, he was among the first on the scene in Arnhem Land, about 500km (310 miles) east of Darwin.
The Air Transport Safety Bureau found that the helicopter’s engine had stopped mid-flight because it had run out of fuel. The helicopter was “likely not refuelled at a fuel depot” during the journey to harvest crocodile eggs, and “the pilot did not identify the reducing fuel state”, investigators said.
Wright was convicted on Friday of lying to investigators about how much fuel was in the machine, as well as asking Mr Robinson, the injured pilot, to falsify flight records.
Prosecutors alleged that Wright had been disconnecting his helicopters’ flying-hour meters so that their long flight times – which exceeded official standards – could go undetected, and he was worried that he would be found out.
The third count, which the Supreme Court jury in Darwin failed to agree on, involves an allegation that Wright told an associate to “just torch” the helicopter’s records.
Wright was released on bail on Friday. While prosecutors sought custody for him, citing the seriousness of his offences, the judge granted Wright bail on the grounds that it was “extremely unlikely there will not be an appeal” of the verdict.
Wright is best known globally as the star of National Geographic’s Outback Wrangler and Netflix’s Wild Croc Territory reality shows. He also owns several local tourism businesses and has been a tourism ambassador for Australia.
