Judge blasts suicide theory in gay killing

A man has been sentenced to nine years behind bars for killing gay mathematician Scott Johnson during a heated clifftop argument in Sydney more than 34 years ago.

Scott Phillip White, 52, was sentenced in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter over the historical death.

The court was told the pair were on top of a cliff at North Head in Manly in early December 1988 when they argued.

While Dr Johnson was standing near the cliff edge, the court heard White threw a “dangerous and unlawful” punch that sent Dr Johnson hurtling backwards off the deadly precipice.

The court heard the 27-year-old was “especially vulnerable” because he was naked, isolated, and physically weaker than his assailant.

The killer fled the scene without raising the alarm. The 27-year-old’s body was discovered by spear fisherman on rocks below the headland on December 10.

His belongings were found 10m back from the cliff edge near a well-known gay beat.

Justice Robert Beech-Jones said he was not satisfied White had a “malign purpose” when he approached Dr Johnson, but that the clifftop punch “very much suggests animosity”.

He acknowledged the killer had been “18 years old, disadvantaged, somewhat cognitively impaired and presumably in a state of panic” when his victim fell, but he would have been capable of making an anonymous phone call to alert the authorities.

“The offender left Dr Johnson to die,” he said.

“It is not known for how long Dr Johnson suffered, but it is certain that for at least some time he would have been terrified.”

At the time of the killing, the court was told White was homeless, “physically powerful”, and “prone to violence”.

Justice Beech-Jones said medical reports showed White lives with cognitive impairments which had been exacerbated by an abusive upbringing and alcohol dependence.

“As the product of dysfunction, the young man who killed Dr Johnson was cognitively impaired, damaged and violent,” he said.

“That same man, now much older, appears to no longer be violent but his impairment and dysfunction are more pronounced.”

He found White had reduced moral culpability and was unlikely to reoffend.

Justice Beech-Jones sentenced White to nine years in jail with a non-parole period of six years. The 52-year-old will be eligible for release on May 11, 2026.

White wore a green prison jacket and a resigned expression as he sat in the Supreme Court dock and learnt his fate.

His long-awaited sentencing comes after a sensational legal battle in which he tried to retract his plea after pleading guilty to murder.

White was sentenced to more than 12 years in jail, but the conviction was quashed by the Court of Criminal Appeal last year.

White subsequently pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter, for which he was jailed on Thursday.

His prison sentence has resolved a desperate 35-year quest for justice by Dr Johnson’s family.

“The family and partner of Dr Scott Johnson remember him as brilliant, gentle, considered and considerate,” Justice Beech-Jones noted in his judgment.

“(His) death was the commencement of a decades-long nightmare of grief and unanswered questions for his family”.

The genius mathematician had “everything to live for” when his life was cut short, the court heard.

Dr Johnson’s brother Steve previously told the court the grieving family’s search for answers had been frustrated by the police decision to investigate the death as a suicide.

He said the police investigation had only begun in earnest nearly more than two decades after his brother’s death when police considered the 27-year-old might have been killed because he was gay.

One inquest into the mathematician’s death found he took his own life, another returned an open finding, and a third in 2017 ruled his death was the result of a gay hate crime.

Homosexuality had only recently been decriminalised in NSW at the time White killed Dr Johnson and homophobia had reached a fever pitch in certain areas of Sydney.

However, the court was told on Thursday that there was not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that “the killing of Dr Johnson was a gay hate crime”.

Justice Beech-Jones said despite his killer being caught, many of the details in Dr Johnson’s death were still shrouded in mystery.

“The answers to numerous other questions about how Dr Johnson died, why he died and what happened in the long decades between his death and today are not yet known,” he said.

“Some of those answers may never be provided.”

Outside court, Dr Johnson’s brother Steve said the sentencing had brought peace and closure to the grieving family.

“It turned out to be what we suspected all along,” he said.

“Sometimes Scott needed me to defend him and that’s what I’ve been doing all these years.”

After 32 years of fighting for the truth, Mr Johnson has been highly critical of the police investigation into his brother’s death.

He said the police need to reform how they deal with LGBT crimes and the families of victims, and he hopes it will happen soon.