“Because of the lapse of time, the offender is no longer the same angry young man who raised his fists to another on the edge of a cliff. “It should be understood that the court is not sentencing a violent and reckless young man for a targeted attack on a gay man,” Wilson said. White had a record of violent crime before and after the murder but had not committed any offense since 2008. “Today I feel like we've had answers and we've had justice, and that's for our brother and that's for gay men who were bashed or killed in that era,” she said. Younger sister Rebecca Johnson said she was satisfied with the sentence. “We didn’t get compensation for Scott this week but what Scott got was dignity,” the older sibling told reporters. Outside court, Boston resident Steve Johnson thanked prosecutors and the judicial system for ensuring White was sent to prison. She said she only became aware of a reward when the victim’s brother, Steve Johnson, doubled the sum in 2020. Under cross-examination on Monday, Helen White denied she had been aware of a 1 million Australian dollar ($704,000) reward for information on Johnson’s murder when she went to police in 2019. Wilson did not accept the defense lawyers’ argument that Helen White had been motivated to report him to police by a reward. Johnson must have been terrified, aware that he would strike the rocks below and conscious of his fate,” Wilson added. “In those seconds when he must have realized what was happening to him, Dr. Johnson, causing him to stumble backwards and leave the cliff edge,” Wilson said. Wilson said it was not possible to draw any conclusions beyond a reasonable doubt about what had happened at the clifftop.
Scott White told police that he was himself gay and frightened that his homophobic brother would find out. She told the court on Monday that her husband had told her Johnson had run off the cliff. White’s former wife Helen White told police in 2019 that her then-husband had bragged about beating gay men and had said the only good gay man was a dead gay man. White was 18 and homeless when he met 27-year-old Los Angeles-born Johnson at a bar in suburban Manly in December 1988 and went with him to a nearby cliff top at North Head. He must serve at least eight years and three months in prison before he can be considered for parole. She also said she applied more lenient sentencing patterns in place in New South Wales state in the late 1980s. The five boys were now back in the care of their parents.Justice Helen Wilson said she did not find beyond reasonable doubt that the murder was a gay hate crime, an aggravating factor that would have led to a longer sentence. Mr Phakphum will face human trafficking charges, police said. He admitted he was infected with HIV and was being treated, police said. The suspect said he spent some of the money buying sex from boys. Customers paid the boys 2,000 baht a time. Identified only as "Phakphum", he was taken into custody by police led by Pol Col Jiradet Phrasawang, deputy chief of the Anti-Human Trafficking Suppression Division, on Thursday evening.įive schoolboys, all aged 14 years, were also taken into protective custody.ĭuring interrogation, Mr Phakphum allegedly admitted he had persuaded the boys to provide sex services for male customers for money. NAKHON RATCHASIMA: A gay man has been arrested at a resort in Sikhiu district for allegedly procuring five 14-year-old schoolboys to provide sex services for male customers. Phakphum, left, is questioned by police at a resort in Nakhon Ratchasima's Sikhiu district for allegedly pimping five schoolboys to male customers.