Chapter 1: What led to Matt Wright's release from prison?
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Lately, we have spent a lot of time talking about the end of a trial, the sentencing process and all that comes at that time. But what about after that, when eventually an offender finishes their prison term and is released back into the community?
I'm Stephen Stockwell and today we're following the release of one of the most well-known offenders on the podcast so far, Northern Territory reality TV star Matt Wright. Welcome to 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 three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
This was a tragic event that took the life of the crocodile egg collector. In December last year, Matt Wright was sentenced to five months in prison for attempting to pervert the course of justice. And that sentence has now ended. It is the first person who we've followed on this pod who has gone from the beginning to almost the end of that judicial process.
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Chapter 2: What was the legal process surrounding Matt Wright's sentencing?
I actually did learn that if you've had a job in prison, you get your money, so you get paid. If you don't have a bank account, they'll just give you cash. I guess in the Northern Territory, it's a little bit of an unusual place. There's, you know, people spread far and wide over very remote parts of the country.
So corrections will sometimes try to make arrangements for people if they're from a very remote area and they need help getting home. Or maybe they sometimes drop people to the Casuarina bus stop. But I'm sure that was not the case for Matt Wright. I doubt that they were just dropping him off at the Casuarina bus stop. I'm sure he had a lift home.
I do like the visual of Matt Wright standing with a duffel bag at the Casuarina bus stop waiting for his wife, Kaya, to come and pick him up. Speaking of his wife, Kaya, we heard at Matt Wright's sentencing that Kaya was pregnant.
This was a point that was kind of talked about in the sentencing submissions from Matt Wright's legal team that he may miss the birth of his son if he's in prison for this period. How did he go? Did he get out in time to see the birth?
Yeah, Stockie, I remember this being quite a significant point on the day of his sentencing, when we were hearing those sentencing submissions from his team, and this was something that came up. And we always knew that Kaya's due date was going to be right on the edge of Matt Wright's release point. And I think at the time, you know,
I certainly thought there'll be efforts to try to get him out before that birth of his third child. Stocky, but what we found out yesterday was that he just missed the birth of his third baby boy.
Yeah. I mean, how did we find out about Matt Wright getting out of prison in the first place? I mean, I can't imagine that there's just like a ledger of people on the NT Corrections website being like, these people are now out, like a kind of a cross or a tick next to their name as to whether or not they're in or out of prison. How did we learn about all of this?
Yeah, I mean, of course, the media would have been, you know, had that date marked in their diary, knowing that that was when he was going to get out. And we always knew it was five months. And that brought it, he was sentenced on the 12th of December, so five months later. Brought it to 11 May. And so we all sort of knew that that was the date.
And of course, unless there's a very good reason and unless, you know, for example, you commit another offence while you're in detention or something like that, corrections can't hold you any longer than what you've been sentenced to. We did try to contact Corrections to sort of confirm whether or not Matt Wright had been released.
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Chapter 3: How did Matt Wright's release impact his family?
Where's that up to?
Yeah, Stockie, I think that was his first comment that he made when he walked out of the Northern Territory Supreme Court on the day of his guilty verdict. I think I recall him saying that he thought the outcome was disappointing and he said he was going to continue the fight, essentially.
And we did hear of his legal team submitting a notice to appeal and there were grounds of appeal that we thought that they were going to be pursuing. But we really haven't heard anything since then.
So, Stockie, normally there's sort of a 28-day timeframe where you have to at least file a notice to appeal, so indicate to the court that you're intending to appeal a decision or a sentence, and then that sort of gets the ball rolling. But there are, you know, I can think of many times where that 28-day period has lapsed and parties have been able to have the timeframe extended.
There could be numerous reasons why that's the case. So even though the 28-day period has well and truly expired in this particular instance, That doesn't necessarily mean that there couldn't be an appeal. And as I said, we did see a notice of appeal filed following the guilty verdict for Matt Wright, but we just haven't heard anything.
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Chapter 4: What does the release process from prison look like?
You know, given he's now been released from prison, I mean, do you often see appeals after someone has served their sentence? I mean, he's still got the five months suspended, but I mean, I feel like you'd probably just let it go, right?
Yeah, I mean, I guess it also depends what... the appeal is. So in this case, it's an appeal of the guilty verdict. He's not appealing his sentence because they're arguing that it's too harsh or the DPP is arguing it's too lenient. This is about him being found guilty. So of course, while I'm sure that a big part of wanting to appeal the sentence would have been to
avoid him having to go to custody in the first place, I guess there's a world where that doesn't entirely ameliorate the desire to appeal. I mean, if he absolutely maintains that he's innocent and absolutely wants to fight this, there is still, I guess, that motivation to want to appeal. But certainly, I think the fact that he's now served his full five months of
would definitely be probably quite a significant factor in wanting to continue this fight. I mean, it's been years of legal proceedings for everyone involved in this matter. And I'm sure, again, that's another factor for them to be weighing up, whether they want to sort of drag this process out even longer than what it's already stretched out for.
Yeah, yeah. I kind of get that logic of if you want to appeal, trying to clear your name and something like that. So I can see kind of how that would fit in and how that may be a motivating factor for someone as well. Matt Wright was found guilty of two charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
He was tried on three though, and the jury actually couldn't reach a verdict on the third. That was the allegation that Matt Wright asked a friend to destroy helicopter flight records. Is he going to get tried on that again? Is that going to come back around?
Yeah, this was, again, one of those sort of loose ends that we had at the end of the trial with Matt Wright. At the time, we did put questions to the DPP about whether or not they were going to be pursuing that third count of attempting to pervert the course of justice. And at the time, they just sort of said, we're just going to wait to see how this all plays out.
Again, I think the appeal was a factor in that because at that stage, everyone was expecting something Are there to be another whole stage to this case with appealing those other two counts? But at this stage, again, we just we haven't heard anything about that third count.
I'm not sure whether this appeal and whether or not that appeal will go ahead is again a factor in whether or not they'll continue to try to pursue count three. But no news yet, Stockie. But when there is, you'll be the first to know.
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