Scott White Pleads Guilty To Manslaughter Over 1988 Death Of Gay American Mathematician

Three months after a court quashed his murder conviction, Scott White (52), has pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter over the 1988 killing of gay American mathematician Scott Johnson in Sydney. 

Trigger Warning: This story discusses the killing of a gay man, which might be distressing to some readers. For 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.

Johnson’s naked body was found on the morning of December 10, 1988, at the base of a cliff at Blue Fish Point, near Manly’s North Head on Sydney’s northern beaches.

The area was a well-known gay beat and has been the site of unsolved deaths of gay men. A special commission of inquiry is currently looking into the unsolved deaths of gay men and trans women that took place in Sydney and NSW between 1970 and 2010.

Death Was Initially Closed As A Suicide

Johnson’s death was closed as a suicide. A 2017 inquest, however, concluded that Johnson was a victim of a hate crime and was murdered. The NSW police announced a $1 million reward, which was doubled by Johnson’s brother Steve in 2020. 

In 2019, White’s ex-wife Helen alerted the police about his possible role in the murder. The Police arrested White in May 2020 and charged him with Johnson’s murder. 

During the trial, Helen revealed that White had often told her and their children about bashing gay men in Sydney in the 1980s. “He quite often bragged about bashing ‘p*****rs’,” said Helen. When she asked him in 2008 if he was responsible for Johnson’s killing, Helen recalled that White replied, “the only good p****r is a dead p*****r”. 

Guilty, Guilty, Guilty

In January 2022, White to the surprise of his lawyers shouted “I’m guilty, guilty, yes, guilty”, in court. Thirty minutes later, he sought to withdraw the guilty plea. The NSW Supreme Court rejected his application and in May 2022, White was convicted of murder and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. 

The trial court said that there was no evidence to conclude Johnson’s death was a hate crime. “Something prompted the offender to attack Dr Johnson after arriving there; possibly the assault was driven by the offender’s own self-loathing and loathing of what Dr Johnson represented; I have concluded it fed his indifference to his victim’s fate. That it was a gay hate crime is not a conclusion that the Court can reach to the criminal standard, however,” NSW Supreme Court judge Helen Wilson said in her judgement.

White Said His Family Hated Gays

Six months later in November 2022, an appeals court quashed the conviction saying the trial court had applied the “wrong legal test” in dismissing White’s application to withdraw his guilty plea. White had claimed that he had pleaded guilty to the murder as he was scared of his ex-wife.

White had told two witnesses that he was secretly gay. He said that “being gay was his biggest secret because his brother and his family ‘hate[d] gays’”. He had told investigators that he had “ pushed the bloke (Johnson), and he went over the edge.”

In a signed statement, White has claimed that he and Johnson met at a Manly pub and they went to North Head together. He insisted that he didn’t know why Johnson had taken his clothes off and the two had a fight. White said he punched Johnson, who fell off the cliff.