Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright has broken his silence just hours after he walked free from jail, having missed the birth of his third child.
His wife, Kaia, gave birth to their son Sterling on Mother’s Day at Darwin Hospital, with her best friend acting as her support person in Wright’s absence.
Kaia had been fighting ‘tooth and nail’ with NT authorities to release the reality television star in the week before his official release date of May 11, in the hope he would make it to the birth, news.com.au reports.
However, the request was denied.
Wright left Darwin Correctional Centre around 6am on Monday and declared he would continue to fight to clear his name.
‘I’ve done my time, I’m continuing with my appeal and will keep fighting to bring to light the injustice that’s occurred,’ Wright, 47, said.
Wright then posted a photo to Instagram of his reunion with the now-family of five and said: ‘Finally home with my family after one hell of a fight. Didn’t quite make the birth of our beautiful boy Sterling but Kaia did an incredible job.’
The publication reports jail sources said Wright was gutted to miss his son’s birth, having had a visit from his wife as recently as Wednesday, when he still held out hope for an early release.
Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright walked free from jail on Monday just hours after his wife Kaia gave birth to their third child
Kaia had been fighting ‘tooth and nail’ with authorities to grant her husband early release
He left Darwin Correctional Centre around 6am and said he will fight to clear his name
The father of three served five months behind bars after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice following a 2022 helicopter crash that killed Chris Wilson and injured pilot Sebastian Robinson.
The pair were on a crocodile egg-collecting trip in Arnhem Land. Mr Wilson was slung on a line below a chopper to be dropped onto nests in remote swampland.
Wright was accused of lying to crash investigators about the amount of fuel in the aircraft, asking Mr Robinson to falsify flying hours, and asking a friend to ‘torch’ the helicopter’s maintenance release.
On August 29, a jury found Wright guilty on the first two counts but could not reach a verdict on the third torching accusation.
Wright was not charged in relation to the cause of the crash but was found to have acted with ‘no remorse’ and pressured a ‘catastrophically injured’ witness in hospital.
The Daily Mail understands Wright had been approved for administrative home detention on March 5 after serving more than three months in jail. To be eligible, a prisoner must have served at least half of their sentence.
Home detention allows prisoners to serve the remainder of their sentence at an approved residence under strict conditions, including electronic monitoring, drug and alcohol testing, and compliance with probation officers.
But just one day before his release, Wright was told the approval had been revoked by the Commissioner.
The crash happened during a crocodile-egg collecting trip in Arnhem Land in 2022
‘He was all set to go and then the rug was pulled from under him at the last minute. I haven’t seen anything like it,’ a prison source told news.com.au at the time.
‘It’s one thing for the Commissioner to let it go through the process the first time and pull it, but to let him apply again with new conditions and leave it to the final hour again, where his young family and pregnant wife think he’s coming home for the second time, and not following through is psychological torture.’
