Justice Wilson said White claimed he felt sorry for the Johnson family and would “never cope” with what happened to Dr Johnson, who was remembered as a modest, kind and gentle young man who was posthumously awarded a doctorate of philosophy on mathematics in 1995. White previously attempted to take his own life multiple times and said he would “kill himself” he if was sentenced to imprisonment, the court was told. “It seems the offender was encouraged as a child to fight for the amusement of others.” “The community failed the offender as a child and a young man,” Justice Wilson said. The court was told that White suffered when he was a child raised by alcoholic, homophobic parents. NSW Supreme Court Credit: Supplied Camera Icon Video footage of Scott White’s interview was played in court. Camera Icon Convicted killer Scott White speaks to police in 2020 after his arrest. Justice Wilson said White had lived on the disability support pension since 1998 and was diagnosed with mild intellectual disability, post-traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, generalised anxiety disorder and alcohol dependence disorder. White was homeless and living on the streets with a mild cognitive impairment when he murdered Dr Johnson, the court was told. NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper Credit: News Corp Australia “He would have been well aware that he and Dr Johnson were close to a cliff edge.” Camera Icon Scott White has been remanded in custody since his arrest in 2020. “The offender necessarily foresaw that his act would probably cause the death of Dr Johnson but continued regardless of that consequence,” Justice Wilson said. White’s claim he was punched was rejected by Justice Wilson, who said there no injuries found on Dr Johnson’s hands. “He may have chased Dr Johnson, it may be that he pushed Dr Johnson … neither of those propositions can be accepted as proved beyond a reasonable doubt.” “Something prompted the offender to attack Dr Johnson … possibly the assault was driven by the offender’s own self-loathing and self-loathing of what Dr Johnson represented,” Justice Wilson said.
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She said Dr Johnson and White could have possibly met for a sexual encounter before the murder, but there was no evidence before the court that explained the full facts surrounding the circumstances of the murder. White made no admission the murder was motivated by a hatred towards gay men and Justice Wilson said that, coupled with the “limited” availability of evidence, led her to conclude “a gay hate crime is not a conclusion the court can reach to a criminal standard”. “Once Dr Johnson left the clifftop the offender’s only thought was for himself.” Dr Johnson must have been terrified, aware that he would strike the rocks below and conscious of his fate.
“The offender hit Dr Johnson, causing him to stumble backwards and leave the cliff edge. “The offender must be sentenced in accordance with sentencing patterns from around the late 1980s and not those imposed now,” Justice Wilson said. The court was told that the sentence reflected that White was aged only 18 when Dr Johnson died and punishments for murder handed out in the 1980s were less severe than in 2022. NCA NewsWire / Dylan Coker Credit: News Corp Australia
Camera Icon Members of the Johnson family travelled to Australia from the US for White’s sentencing. Justice Helen Wilson on Tuesday sentenced White to 12 years and seven months in jail, with a non-parole period of eight years and three months backdated to when he first entered custody in May 2020. When police spoke to White in March 2020 he denied targeting gay men and said “no I’m gay myself”, court documents state. “He said ‘the only good poofter is a dead poofter’,” Mrs White told the court. She told the NSW Supreme Court on Monday that White often bragged about bashing gay men and referred to Dr Johnson as a “girly looking poofter”. Police interviewed White in 2020 after his ex-wife Helen tipped off authorities. It wasn’t until 2017 that an inquest found that Dr Johnson died as the result of an act of another person.
Police initially believed Dr Johnson took his own life and the case went cold for decades despite his family advocating for further investigation and multiple inquests being held. Camera Icon Detective Sergeant John Breda, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Yeomans and Detective Senior Constable Tim Carey arrested Scott Phillip White. According to court documents, the 27-year-old’s clothes were found 10m back from the cliff’s edge.