NSW Police Hostility To Gay American Mathematician’s Family Revealed In Text Messages

The family of the gay American mathematician Scott Johnson, who was pushed to his death in Sydney in 1988, have spoken out on the treatment they received by senior NSW Police officers, with text messages revealing just how hostile the officers were to the family.

Johnson’s killer, Scott Phillip White was recently sentenced to a maximum of nine years in prison, on the basis that he committed a dangerous and unlaw act when he punched Johnson. 

This act caused the 27-year-old to stumble and fall off of an unfenced cliff at Blue Fish Point in North Head in December 1988. After falling to his death, Johnson’s naked body was found by fishermen at the base of the cliff on 10th December 1988.

Johnson’s case is one of the many cases of death between 1970 and 2010 that is currently being examined in the state’s inquiry of suspected LGBTQ+ hate crimes.

The Johnson’s have voiced their experiences with officers from NSW Police and, with Steve Johnson describing  how they “demonised my family by calling us obsessed, erratic, a list of other names … in emails to each other and texts to each other.”

The Texts

Text messages between former deputy police commissioner Mick Willing, who was the commander of the homicide squad at the time, and Pamela Young who was the detective chief inspector at the time, reveal the animosity between them and the Johnson family.

“I want all the hard work you have done to come out in court for what it is and show the Johnsons for what they are. We need to let that happen and can’t jeopardise that now by letting them win,” Willing wrote to Young.

“Mick – I will not let them win – that is not in my DNA,” Young replied.

“OK I understand. We will work through it and we will come out on top,” Willing responded and the pair have left the force.

Upon learning of the texts, Johnson’s brother said “Hearing these upsetting admissions really just makes my family even more determined to help the other families.”

Young did an interview on the ABC’s Lateline the day before the texts were sent and said “there’s still evidence and information that Scott may have suicided.”

She went on to suggest that Steve Johnson had used his “influence” on the government in order to “ make the death of Scott a priority in my office over other jobs that we had.” She also accused the police minister of placating the family when setting up the reinvestigation into Johnson’s death back in February 2013.

In a written submission by counsel assisting the hate crimes inquiry state that the NSW Police “were still submitting to the Coroner [in late 2017] that the death of Scott Johnson was likely to have been a suicide and that a finding of homicide ‘would not be open’.”

“Young wanted to defeat the Johnson family.”

In written submissions, it was said that Willing had accepted during the inquiry “that it was obvious that DCI Young wanted to defeat the Johnson family, and that a defeat, for the Johnson family, would be no finding of homicide.”

He defended himself in regards to the text messages exchanged with Young, telling the inquiry that he did not share her views and that the messages were sent to “appease” her.

However, counsel assisting had submitted to Supreme Court Justice John Sackar, who is presiding over the hate crimes inquiry, that the evidence on this issue by Willing should be rejected as it was “unpersuasive.”

“The evidence permits a finding that he did share the views of DCI Young as to defeating the Johnson family by opposing and preventing a finding of homicide,” counsel assisting stated.