Last Updated on: 3rd May 2022, 08:38 am
Who is Scott White of Sydney, Australia? Biography, Wiki
Scott White belongs to Syndey, Australia.
Scott Phillip White Age
His current age is 51 years old.
Scott White Sentenced To 12 Years In Jail For The Murder Of Scott Johnson
The family of murdered graduate student Scott Johnson has expressed relief and gratitude after his killer was imprisoned more than 33 years after Johnson’s body was discovered at the bottom of a cliff in 1988.
Scott White, 51, will serve at least eight years and three months in prison for the murder of the 27-year-old US citizen since Judge Helen Wilson told the NSW Supreme Court she could not find the murder was a homosexual hate crime.
White, 51, was found guilty of Johnson’s murder after pleading ‘categorically’ guilty at a preliminary hearing at the NSW Supreme Court in January, much to the surprise of his lawyers.
During Monday’s sentencing hearing, new details emerged about the circumstances of Johnson’s death and White’s role in it.
White’s ex-wife Helen testified in court that he “often boasted about beating up lunatics” and did not deny responsibility for Johnson’s death, as she sued when he did.
But the court also heard that White was gay, telling witnesses that he and Johnson had met at a pub and went to North Head together before Johnson stripped naked and no argument broke out.
When Judge Wilson handed down the verdict Tuesday, she said White’s motivation for hitting Johnson near the edge of a 200-foot cliff and knocking him down could not be established beyond a reasonable doubt. He also couldn’t tell that a plan was involved.
Scott White was convicted of Scott Johnson’s murder in 1988.
“The fact that this was a homosexual hate crime is not a finding that the court can reach by any criminal standard,” Wilson said.
Wilson told the court there was “relatively limited evidence from which to draw conclusions” about what happened at the top of the cliff on the night of December 8, 1988. He said he could not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that White “beat Dr. Johnson”, causing him to stumble backward and over the edge of the cliff.
Johnson’s naked body was discovered by spearfishermen two days after he fell off the cliff, and an initial inquest ruled his death a suicide.
Only after years of campaigning by Johnson’s family and two more investigations did a coroner determine in 2017 that he was most likely dead after an alleged “gay hate attack.”
Steve Johnson, an IT entrepreneur who used his own funds to match the $1 million reward offered by police two years earlier in 2020, thanked Judge Wilson for her attention in court Tuesday.
“There’s no way of guessing the phrase he gave,” Johnson said. “Twelve years in prison could have been living and it didn’t bring Scott White back.”
“What we got was justice and dignity for our brother.”
Johnson also thanked the killer’s ex-wife, Helen White, “who bravely came forward, sacrificed her safety and bravely testified in court yesterday.”
White told the court that he contacted police in January 2019 after reading an article about Johnson’s death and denied that he was just running for the award.
“I think it was around March 2020 when the reward doubled to $2 million; It was the first time I heard about it,” he told the court.
White was charged with Johnson’s murder in May 2020.
On Jan. 13, he surprised his attorneys when he was charged at a preliminary hearing, telling the court he was “guilty, guilty…I’m guilty.”
His attorneys moved to have the lawsuit dropped, arguing that their client was suffering from stress and anxiety and needed support for a developmental disability, but was denied.
They have since filed an appeal, which Wilson says could be heard in the Criminal Court of Appeals “later this year.”
If the conviction is overturned, a trial could take place by the middle of next year.
“You took Scott White out of the world”: Victim’s family looks murderous in the eye Steve Johnson has said he hopes he doesn’t have to return to Australia just in case, but he hopes to return “because I love the country and love Sydney”.
Emotionally, he said his brother’s caring spirit had “brought out the best of Australia” in recent years. “A lot of people came together because they were inspired by Scott White and saw that he had been wronged.”
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