His lawyers will appeal that plea in the Court of Criminal Appeals 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 Belinda Rigg said her client was gay and had been concerned that his homophobic brother would find out. He said 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 suburban Manly and Johnson had stripped naked at the clifftop before he died, Hatfield said. Prosecutor Brett Hatfield said the precise details of the murder were not known and that White's accounts had varied. "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. Rebecca Johnson, a younger sister, said the police report of suicide "made no sense." Steve Johnson, right, with his sisters, Terry, left, and Rebecca and his wife Rosemarie, second right, arrive at the Supreme Court in Sydney, May 2, 2022, for a sentencing hearing in the murder of Scott Johnson, Steve, Terry and Rebecca's brother. Rosemarie Johnson described the initial police failure to investigate Scott Johnson's death as "indefensible and inhumane." Scott Johnson's sisters Terry and Rebecca Johnson, his partner Michael Noone and Steve Johnson's wife Rosemarie Johnson also gave victim impact statements. If he had grasped Scott's hand and pulled him to safety, I would owe him everlasting gratitude," the brother said, his voice choked with emotion. "If he had turned himself in after his violent action, I would have had a little more sympathy. Steve Johnson said he appreciated White's guilty plea.
"This man (Scott Johnson) who once told me he could never hurt someone even in self-defense died in terror," the brother added. Steve Johnson said in his victim impact statement that, "With a vicious push, Mr. She said she only became aware of a reward when the victim's brother, Steve Johnson, doubled the sum in 2020. Under cross-examination, Helen White denied she had been aware of a AU$1 million reward for information on Johnson's murder when she reported her former husband to police in 2019.
White will be sentenced by Justice Helen Wilson on Tuesday. Scott White, 51, appeared in the New South Wales state Supreme Court for a sentencing hearing after he pleaded guilty in January to the murder of the Los Angeles-born Canberra resident, whose death at the base of a North Head cliff was initially dismissed by police as suicide. A family photo provided by the New South Wales Police shows Scott Johnson, who in 1988 was pushed to his death from a clifftop in Sydney, Australia.Ĭanberra, Australia - A man told police he killed American mathematician Scott Johnson in 1988 by pushing the 27-year-old off a Sydney cliff in what prosecutors describe as a gay hate crime, a court heard on Monday.