By Jenny Noyes
The family of murdered PhD student Scott Johnson have expressed relief and gratitude after his killer was jailed, more than 33 years after Johnson’s body was found at the base of a cliff in 1988.
Scott Phillip White, 51, will serve at least eight years and three months in jail for murdering the 27-year-old US national, with Justice Helen Wilson telling the NSW Supreme Court she could not establish that the murder was a gay hate crime.
Steve Johnson and sister Rebecca outside the court on Tuesday.Credit: Peter Rae
White, 51, was convicted of Johnson’s murder after entering an “emphatic” guilty plea during a pretrial hearing in the NSW Supreme Court in January, to the surprise of his lawyers.
At the sentence hearing on Monday, new details emerged about the circumstances surrounding Johnson’s death and White’s role in it.
White’s former wife, Helen, told the court he “often bragged about bashing poofters” and did not deny being responsible for Johnson’s death when she asked him if he did it.
But the court also heard that White was himself gay – and had told witnesses he and Johnson met at a pub and went to North Head together, before Johnson undressed and an altercation ensued.
As Justice Wilson imposed the sentence on Tuesday, she said White’s motivation for striking Johnson near the edge of a 60-metre cliff, causing him to fall, could not be determined beyond reasonable doubt. Nor could she establish that there was any planning involved.
Scott Phillip White has been sentenced for the murder of Scott Johnson in 1988.
“That it was a gay hate crime is not a conclusion the court can reach to a criminal standard,” Wilson said.
Wilson told the court there was “relatively limited evidence from which to draw conclusions” about just what happened on the clifftop on the night of December 8, 1988. She said she could only establish beyond reasonable doubt that White “hit Dr Johnson, causing him to stumble backwards and go over the cliff edge”.
Johnson’s naked body was discovered by spear fishermen two days after he fell from the cliff, and an initial inquest ruled his death a suicide.
It was only after years of campaigning by Johnson’s family and two further inquests that a coroner found, in 2017, he had most likely died as a result of an alleged “gay-hate attack”.
Speaking outside the court on Tuesday, Steve Johnson – an IT entrepreneur who in 2020 matched the $1 million reward offered by police two years earlier with his own funds – thanked Justice Wilson for her careful consideration.
“There’s no way to second-guess the sentence that she delivered,” Johnson said. “Twelve years in prison – it could have been life in prison and it wasn’t bringing Scott back.
“What we got was fairness, and dignity for our brother.”
Johnson also thanked the killer’s ex-wife, Helen White, “who courageously came forward, sacrificed her safety to do that, and bravely testified in court yesterday.”
Helen White leaves the NSW Supreme Court on Monday.Credit: Edwina Pickles
Ms White told the court she contacted police in January 2019 after reading an article about Johnson’s death, and denied she only came forward because of the reward.
“I believe it was around March 2020, when the reward was doubled to $2 million; that was the first I’d heard of it,” she told the court.
White was charged with Johnson’s murder in May 2020.
On January 13, he shocked his lawyers when he was arraigned during a pretrial hearing and told the court he was “guilty, guilty... I am guilty.”
His lawyers applied for the plea to be vacated, arguing that their client suffered from stress and anxiety, and required support for an intellectual disability, but it was denied.
They have since filed an appeal, which Wilson indicated might have a hearing date in the Court of Criminal Appeal “towards the end of this year”.
Should the conviction be quashed, a trial could be heard as early as mid next year.
Steve Johnson said he hoped he would not have to return to Australia because of this case – but he hopes to visit again “because I do love the country, and Sydney”.
Becoming emotional, he said his brother’s kind spirit had “brought out the best in Australia” in recent years. “A large number of people came together because they were inspired by Scott. and they saw that he was wronged.
“I think today he’s saying thank you, and he’s proud of us.”
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