Scott White biography: 13 things about Sydney, New South Wales, Australia man

Scott Phillip White is an Australian man from Lane Cove, Lower North Shore, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He was the last person Scott Johnson, 27, of Los Angeles, California, United States was with on December 8, 1988.

On December 10, 1988, Johnson’s dead and naked body was found on rocks at Blue Fish Point in North Head. Johnson’s death was ruled a suicide at the first inquest in 1989. A second inquest in June 2012 returned an open finding.

In the third inquest in 2017, New South Wales state coroner Michael Barnes ruled that Johnson fell from the clifftop as the result of violence by someone who perceived Johnson to be gay. Here are 13 more things about White:

1. He was raised in a homophobic family.
2. According to his former wife Helen White, he often bragged about bashing homosexual men. He later came out as gay.
3. On December 8, 1988, he met Johnson at the Brighton Hotel in Manly, Sydney. They later went to North Head near Manly where punched Johnson, causing Johnson to fall off a cliff. He fled the scene and did not notify the police.
4. According to Helen, days after the death of Johnson on December 10, 1988, she asked him if he threw Johnson off the cliff. She said he answered, “It’s not my fault the dumb c*** ran off the cliff.”
5. According to Helen, she saw an article about Johnson in a newspaper in September 2008 and asked him if he was the culprit. She said his reply was “the only good poofter is a dead poofter”.
6. On May 12, 2020, he was arrested at his home in Lane Cove. He was charged with the murder of Johnson.
7. When his matter was mentioned briefly in court in Parramatta, Greater Western Sydney, New South Wales on May 13, 2020, he neither appeared nor applied for bail.
8. On January 10, 2022, he was arraigned at a pretrial hearing in the Supreme Court in New South Wales. Represented by Belinda Rigg, he told the court at least three times that he was guilty of murdering Johnson, which shocked his legal team.
9. On January 13, 2022, Supreme Court Justice Helen Wilson refused to grant him leave to withdraw his plea and convicted him of the murder of Johnson.
10. On May 2, 2022, Wilson sentenced him to a maximum of 12 years and 7 months over the murder of Johnson. He was facing life behind bars but he received a reduced sentence based on his guilty plea, cognitive impairment and a dysfunctional upbringing.
11. In November 2022, he successfully overturned his guilty plea and conviction.
12. In February 2023, he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
13. He was 52 years old when he was sentenced on June 8, 2023 to nine years in jail. He will be eligible for release in 2026.