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Outback Wrangler Matt Wright Leaves NT Prison After Five Months

The next step hinges on an appeal that has been lodged yet not advanced.

Overview

  • Wright left Darwin Correctional Centre on Monday after serving five months of a 10-month sentence and now begins a two-year good-behaviour period.
  • He wrote that he was back with his family but missed the birth of his son Sterling by hours after a denied compassionate-release request.
  • He says he will keep fighting the case, and an appeal notice filed last year has not moved forward.
  • A jury found him guilty of lying to police about fuel and of asking the injured pilot to falsify helicopter records, while it deadlocked on a third allegation.
  • At sentencing, the judge said the crashed helicopter had likely exceeded its 2,200-hour limit that required retirement or overhaul, and prosecutors did not allege he caused the crash.