CANBERRA, Australia – A man told police he killed American mathematician Scott Johnson in 1988 by pushing the 27-year-old off a Sydney cliff into what prosecutors describe as a hate crime, according to a court on Monday. Scott White, 51, has appeared in New South Wales Supreme Court for a conviction hearing in January for the murder of a Los Angeles-born Canberra resident who died at the base of a North Rock cliff. Head was initially dismissed by police as suicidal. White will be sentenced by Judge Helen Wilson on Tuesday. He faces a possible life sentence. “I pushed a guy. He went to extremes,” White said in a recorded police interview in 2020 that was played in court. White said in the interview that he lied when he had earlier told police he had tried to grab Johnson and prevent his fatal fall. Prosecutors: 3 face charges of hate crimes for assaulting gay man in Florida 02:46 A medical examiner ruled in 2017 that Johnson “fell from the top of a cliff as a result of real or threatened violence by strangers who attacked him because they perceived him as gay.” The medical examiner also found that gangs of men roamed various locations in Sydney in search of gay men to attack, resulting in the deaths of several victims. Some also robbed. A medical examiner had ruled in 1989 that the openly gay man had committed suicide, while a second medical examiner in 2012 could not explain how he died. Steve Johnson, brother of U.S. murder victim Scott Johnson, hugs Rosemarie’s wife as they arrive in Sydney Supreme Court on May 2, 2022, for a hearing to condemn Scott’s murder. Rick Rycroft / AP His brother, Boston-based Steve Johnson, pushed for further investigation and offered his own 1 1 million ($ 704,000) reward for information. White was charged in 2020 and police say the reward is likely to be collected. White’s ex-wife, Ellen White, told the court that her then-husband “boasted” to their children that he had beaten gay men at the top of a cliff known for gay dating. Helen White said she read a newspaper in 2008 about Johnson’s death and asked her husband if he was responsible. “It’s not my fault,” Scott White reportedly replied. “The mute (abusive) ran off the cliff.” “I said, ‘It’s if you chased him,’” Helen White told the court. She said her husband did not answer. Following a cross-examination, Helen White denied that she was aware of a reward of AU 1 million for information leading to Johnson’s murder when she reported her ex-husband to the police in 2019. She said she was informed of a reward only when the victim’s brother, Steve Johnson doubled the number in 2020. Steve Johnson said in a statement of the victim’s impact that, “With a vicious push, Mr. White took Scott and disappeared.” “This man (Scott Johnson) who once told me he could never hurt anyone even in self-defense died in terror,” the brother added. Steve Johnson said he appreciated White’s guilty plea. “If he had surrendered after his violent action, I would have had a little more sympathy. If he had grabbed Scott by the arm and pulled him to safety, I would owe him eternal gratitude,” said the brother, his voice muffled by emotion. . Scott Johnson’s sisters Terry and Rebecca Johnson, Michael Noon’s partner and Steve Johnson’s wife Rosemary Johnson also gave statements of impact to the victims. Rosemary Johnson described the initial police failure to investigate Scott Johnson’s death as “defenseless and inhumane”. Rebecca Johnson, a younger sister, said the police report on the suicide “did not make sense”. Steve Johnson, right, with his sisters Terry, left, and Rebecca and his wife Rosemarie, second right, arrive in Sydney Supreme Court on May 2, 2022, for a sentencing hearing for the murder of Scott Johnson, Steve, Terry and Rebecca’s brother. Rick Rycroft / AP “How could a community fail so spectacularly that they created boys capable of such horror?” she asked, referring to media reports of gay beatings in Sydney being described as a sport. Prosecutor Brett Hatfield said the exact details of the murder were unknown and that White’s accounts differed. White had met Johnson at a nearby bar in Manley suburb and Johnson had stripped naked to the top of the cliff before he died, Hatfield said. He said the gravity of the murder was significantly increased because he was motivated by the victim’s sexuality. White’s lawyer, Belinda Rigg, said her client was gay and worried his homophobic brother would find out. In January, White repeatedly shouted in court during a preliminary investigation that he was guilty, having previously denied the crime. His lawyers will appeal to the Criminal Court of Appeal and hope he will be acquitted at trial. Scott Johnson was a PhD student at the National University of Australia and lived in Canberra. He was living at Noone’s parents’s house in Sydney when he died.
