White had met Johnson in a nearby bar in a Sydney suburb and Johnson had stripped naked at the clifftop before he died, according to prosecutors His lawyers later announced they will appeal that plea and hope he will be acquitted at trial.
In January, White yelled repeatedly in court during a pre-trial hearing that he was guilty, having previously denied the crime. White's lawyer said her client was also gay and had been concerned that his homophobic brother would find out. They added that the gravity of the murder was significantly elevated because it was motivated by the victim´s sexuality. White had met Johnson in a nearby bar in a Sydney suburb and Johnson had stripped naked at the clifftop before he died, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors said some precise details of the murder are not known and that White's accounts have varied since first being interviewed by police. Johnson lived in Canberra at the home of his partner's parents in Sydney before being murdered in 1988. Above, Johnson siblings Rebecca (left), Terry (center left), Steve (right) and Steve's wife Rosemarie (center right) White will be sentenced on Tuesday and faces a potential sentence of life in prison.ĭuring a sentencing hearing Monday, an Australian Supreme court heard accounts of White's ex-wife that her then-husband 'bragged' to their six children about beating gay men at a clifftop well-known for gay meetups as Johnson's family choked down tears. 'The wailing is a reliving, it's a howl of death and despair and loss and grief that signifies that a piece of us has departed. Johnson's Boston-based brother Steve Johnson, who maintained pressure for further investigation and offered his own reward of AU$1million or $704,000, described the way his mother had reacted with a wailing cry at the news of his brother's death. He was charged in 2020 with murder.ĭuring a sentencing hearing Monday, an Australian Supreme court heard Helen White's account as Johnson's family choked down tears. Then in 2019, White's ex-wife, Helen White, alerted police after her then-husband 'bragged' to their six children about beating gay men at a clifftop well-known for gay meetups. violence by perceived him to be homosexual,' after mounting evidence of several reports of gay men being beaten in the area in the 1980s. Johnson's body was found at the bottom of the North Head Manly Walk in Sydney in 1988 and for nearly three decades his death was dismissed by police as a suicide.Ī coroner had ruled in 1989 that the openly gay man had taken his own life, while a second coroner in 2012 could not explain how he died.Ī third report ruled in 2017 that Johnson 'fell from the clifftop as a result of. Scott White, 51, pleaded guilty in January to the murder of 27-year-old Scott Johnson, a Los Angeles native and doctoral student at the Australian National University in Canberra. Published: 09:27 BST, | Updated: 20:57 BST, Īn Australian man faces a sentence of life in prison after admitting to killing a gay American mathematician in 1988 by pushing him off a cliff in what prosecutors describe as a hate crime initially dismissed as suicide
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His lawyers later announced they will appeal that plea and hope he will be acquitted at trial