Criminal Law
An Australian Man Confesses to Pushing a Gay American Off a Cliff in 1988
A man told police he killed American mathematician Scott Johnson in 1988 by pushing the 27-year-old off a Sydney cliff in what prosecutors describe as a gay hate crime, a court heard on Monday.
Scott White, 51, appeared in the New South Wales state Supreme Court for a sentencing hearing after he pleaded guilty in January to the murder of the Los Angeles-born Canberra resident, whose death at the base of a North Head cliff was initially dismissed by police as suicide.
White will be sentenced by Justice Helen Wilson on Tuesday. He faces a potential sentence of life in prison.
