Man convicted of murdering Scott Johnson at gay beat claims confession made due to fear of his wife, court hears
A mathematician’s convicted murderer wants to recall his unexpected guilty plea after claiming he confessed out of fear his wife could come after him, a Sydney appeal court has heard.
Scott Phillip White had long denied murdering Scott Johnson who was found at the bottom of cliffs at Manly in 1988, before stating “guilty, I am guilty” during a pre-trial hearing in January this year.
He later told his confused lawyers: “I didn’t do it but I’m saying I’m doing it … it’s the only way, she’s going to come after me.”
White also pointed to stress including seeing the victim’s brother Steve and police in court, according to legal notes read out in court on Tuesday.
“They are bad reasons, they’re really bad reasons for pleading guilty and any lawyer acting responsibly would try to do as these lawyers have” and try to reverse the plea, barrister Tim Game SC told the NSW court of criminal appeal. “He had no advice at the point at which he pleaded guilty.”
Game, who began representing White recently, said it was in the interests of justice for the court to allow the cognitively impaired man to withdraw his plea and allow the matter to go to trial.
He rejected the crown’s assertion that White made a plea of convenience, saying no lawyer would ever “plead someone up to murder” without knowing the facts, which he says weren’t before the court.
White’s silence was of little significance as his lawyers had noted his denials “immediately before and after” his guilty plea, Game said.
“I’d regard this situation as uniquely unusual – I’ve never seen anything like it,” the barrister said.
The judge who heard the plea in January refused to allow White to reverse it and later sentenced the 52-yearold to at least eight years and three months in jail.
While not finding the matter was a gay hate crime, Justice Helen Wilson found White had reckless indifference to Johnson’s life when he threw a punch near the unguarded edge of a high cliff and then fled without notifying police that Johnson disappeared over the edge.
Before White pleaded guilty, his lawyers had been entering pleas on his behalf, the appeal court was told.
A “very, very significant” matter was White telling his lawyer shortly afterwards that “this is not a split [sic] decision … I have been thinking about this”, the NSW director of public prosecutions, Sally Dowling SC, said on Tuesday.
“He has the presence of mind to assert for himself that it’s not a splitsecond decision.”
Dowling said he understood the case, was well advised about plea decisions and had importantly been “cogent and coherent” when telling lawyers he pleaded guilty as he wanted the matter “put to rest for Scott”, the DPP said. “That’s a completely understandable and rational statement.”
Johnson worked for Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory mapping the surface of Venus before moving to Australia in May 1986. He was working at the Australian National University at the time of his death.
His death was initially ruled a suicide before the case was reopened in 2012 after pressure from his family. A coroner in 2017 determined the matter involved human intervention.
Johnson’s brother, Steve, attended Tuesday’s hearing in Sydney while several members of the Johnson family also viewed it online. The hearing was adjourned to Wednesday.