An Australian pleaded guilty on Thursday to manslaughter in the death 35 years ago of an American who fell from a Sydney clifftop that was known as a gay meeting place, with the victim's family welcoming the turning point in their long campaign for justice.
Scott White's admission in the New South Wales state Supreme Court came three months after he had his conviction on charges of murdering Scott Johnson overturned by an appeals court.
“In that phone call to the niece, he corroborated evidence that they had previously gathered, and that brought his defense team to the table” to negotiate a guilty plea, Johnson told The Associated Press. A coroner ruled in 2017 that Scott Johnson “fell from the clifftop as a result of actual or threatened violence” by unknown assailants who “attacked him because they perceived him to be homosexual.”
“In fact, many of us believe that it was the police indifference to these killings and bashings of gay men back in the '80s that helped cause them. The perpetrators always knew they would not get into trouble,” Johnson said. White, 52, was arrested in Sydney that year and pleaded not guilty to the murder of Johnson, who was an Australian National University Ph.D. student living in the capital, Canberra, when he died.
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