CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – A man told police he killed American mathematician Scott Johnson by throwing a 27 -year -old Sydney rock into a ravine in 1988, which prosecutors describe as a hate crime of a court, was heard by the court on Monday.
Scott White, 51, appeared in the New South Wales Supreme Court for a sentencing hearing after he pleaded guilty in January Prior to the murder of a Los Angeles -born Canberra resident whose death at the foot of North Head Rock was first considered suicide by the police.
White will be sentenced by Judge Helen Wilson on Tuesday. He is in danger of possible life imprisonment.
“I took one of the guys.” He went over the edge, ”White said in a 2020 police interview that played on the court.
White said in an interview that he lied when he told police he was trying to catch Johnson and prevent his fatal fall.
A court found in 2017 that Johnson “fell into the abyss as a result of concrete or threatening violence by strangers who attacked him because they thought of him as homosexual.”
The court also found that gangs of men were marching in different parts of Sydney looking for homosexuals in an attack, which resulted in several deaths. Several people were also robbed.
A court in 1989 ruled that an openly gay man had killed his own life, while a second court in 2012 did not explain how he died.
His Boston brother Steve Johnson continued to push for further investigation and offered his own reward of A $ 1 million (US $ 704,000) for the information. White was indicted in 2020, and police said the reward is likely to be raised.
White’s ex -wife, Helen White, told the court her husband was “bragging” to their children about beating gays with a rock known for their gay dating.
Helen White said she read a newspaper article in 2008 about Johnson’s death and asked her husband if he was responsible.
“It’s not my fault,” Scott White would have replied. “Muto (dumb) escaped from the rock.
“I told her,‘ It’s if you chased her, ’” Helen White told the court, adding that her husband did not respond.
During cross-examination, Helen White denied that she knew of the $ 1 million bounty for information that led to Johnson’s murder when she reported her ex-husband to police in 2019. She said she heard the bounty. Older brother Steve Johnson doubled the amount in 2020.
Steve Johnson said in a statement about the impact on his victim that “with a fierce push Mr. White grabbed Scott and disappeared.”
“This man (Scott Johnson) who once told me that he could never live with anyone, even in defense, died of fear,” the brother added.
Steve Johnson said he appreciates White’s guilty plea.
“If he gave up after the violent act, I have a little bit of sympathy. I would be eternally grateful if Scott would have taken my hand and pulled me out safely,” said the brother, choking on emotion.
Scott Johnson’s siblings Terry and Rebecca Johnson, his partner Michael Noon and Steve Johnson’s wife Rosemary Johnson also testified to the victim’s impact.
Rosemary Johnson described the failure of the primary police investigation into Scott Johnson’s death as “weak and inhumane”.
Rebecca Johnson, the younger sister, said the police report about the suicide was “nonsense”.
“How can it be clear that society is so unsuccessful that it creates men who can be horrible?” Asked based on media reports about gay beating in Sydney Described as a sport.
Attorney Brett Hatfield said the exact details of the murder are unknown and White’s accounts are changing.
White met Johnson at a bar near the outside of Manley and Johnson stripped over the rock before he died, Hatfield said. He said the severity of the murder increased sharply because it was motivated by the victim’s sexuality.
White’s lawyer, Belinda Rigg, said her client was gay and afraid to find out her homophobic brother.
In January, White repeatedly shouted in court at a preliminary hearing that he was guilty, previously not guilty.
His lawyers will appeal to the Criminal Court of Appeal and hope he will be acquitted at trial.
Scott Johnson is a doctoral student at the Australian National University and lives in Canberra. He was at Sydney’s parents ’house in Sydney when he died.
Source: Huffpost
