Suspect held over death of gay student who fell from Sydney cliff in 1988

POLICE in Sydney have charged a 49-year-old man over the homophobic murder of a mathematician 32 years ago, one of an estimated 80 gay killings in Australia’s largest city over several decades.

Scott Johnson, an American PHD student, was 27 when he died. His naked body was found at the bottom of a cliff at North Head, Manly, in December 1988, but the death was treated as suicide for years. Detectives said the man was arrested at a property in Sydney’s northern suburbs. He was taken to a local police station for questioning and later charged with murder.

He was refused bail and is scheduled to appear in court in Parramatta today.

Police did not identify the accused, but he was named on ABC and other media outlets as Scott Phillip White. New South Wales state Police Commissioner Mick Fuller phoned Johnson’s brother, Steve, in Boston, US, to tell him of the arrest. “Making that call is a career highlight,” said Mr Fuller.

Steve Johnson, a former vice president of internet giant AOL, issued a video message from the US, saying the arrest was “very emotional … for me and my family, for my three kids who never got to know their uncle and admire him, not just because of his brilliance, but because he courageously lived his life the way he wanted to”.

Mr Johnson never believed his brother took his own life. In 2007 he launched his own investigation. The internet entrepreneur hired Daniel Glick, a former Newsweek investigative journalist, to travel to Sydney.

Mr Glick told the Sydney Morning Herald: “Pretty much on day one, it became clear the place where Scott died was a gay beat.

Gay men don’t go to gay beats to commit suicide. Period.”

Sue Thompson, a lawyer and former state investigator, said there were about 80 suspected homophobic killings or disappearances in Sydney and New South Wales from the late 1970s to the late 1990s. Thirty of them are thought to remain unsolved. She told the Herald in 2013: “It was never just a wave. It is more accurate as an epidemic.”