The man arrested over the 1988 death of American mathematician Scott Johnson in Sydney has pleaded guilty to manslaughter, after having a murder conviction quashed on appeal and previously maintaining his innocence.
Scott Johnson's body was found at the base of cliffs at a gay beat at Manly in 1988 and his death was one of the city's longest-running mysteries.
Decades later, Scott Phillip White was arrested, and early last year he surprised his lawyers with a guilty plea to the charge of murder at a pre-trial hearing - but immediately attempted to reverse it.
The 52-year-old was sentenced to 12 years in jail, but the conviction was quashed in November, when the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal found the primary judge applied the wrong legal test in determining whether White could withdraw his plea.
Today, in the NSW Supreme Court, White appeared in person to again be arraigned before Justice Robert Beech-Jones.
He pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter.
"You understand by pleading guilty to manslaughter you're accepting legal responsibility for his death but not for murdering him, you understand that?" the judge asked.
"Yeah I do," White replied, sitting in the dock with a solicitor.
White was arrested in May 2020, decades after 27-year-old Johnson's body was found.
Last year, he took his own legal team by surprise during a pre-trial hearing in January when he declared: "Guilty, I'm guilty."
A panel of three judges in the Court of Criminal Appeal later found the wrong legal test was applied by the primary judge in determining whether the plea should be withdrawn.
Today's revelation is yet another surprise development in one of Sydney's longest-running mysteries, which has already been the subject of three inquests and a $2 million reward for information.
One inquest found Johnson took his own life, another returned an open finding and a third ruled his death was the result of a gay hate crime.
Johnson's family, including his brother Steve, tirelessly pushed for a more comprehensive investigation.
Speaking from the US, Steve Johnson said today's proceedings "might be the most emotional moment yet".
"The police work that continued during the appeal and after the appeal to get that one last piece of evidence that brought him to the table ... so that we could negotiate this, I'm incredibly thankful," he said.
He hoped that one day White could find it in himself to explain why he "was there with my brother and what his intention was".
Mr Johnson said he had seen agreed court documents which set out some of the events that led to his brother's death.
"Reading the black and white of his confession, in which he states that he threw the first punch, which I imagine was the only punch and my brother must have been very close to the cliff ... makes me pretty angry," he said.
"And it makes me wonder whether he went to hunt my brother, or as he says in the confession, that they went there together.
"I guess a corner of my heart will wonder if I could ever have a conversation with the man."
White, who prior to his arrest had told two witnesses that being gay was his biggest secret, was 18 and homeless at the time of the crime.
In sentencing him last year, Justice Helen Wilson said there was not enough evidence to conclude Johnson's death was a gay hate crime beyond reasonable doubt.
The sentence was imposed on the basis of White's "reckless indifference to human life" and the judge said Johnson suffered "a terrible death".
But Justice Wilson pointed out the court wasn't sentencing a "violent and aggressive young man", rather, a "seriously impaired man in his 50s" who had been law abiding for 15 years.
White's ex-wife Helen has previously told the court of asking him about a newspaper article which referred to Johnson around 2008.
She said he replied "the only good poofter is a dead poofter" before remarking that it was "not his fault" if someone "ran off the cliff".
Last January, when his lawyers held a meeting with White after his unexpected plea, he claimed "I didn't do it, but I'm saying I did it", and also voiced concerns that "she's going to come after me", referring to his ex-wife.
The agreed statement of facts, signed by White, reveals that in early October last year — just weeks before his two-day appeal hearing at a time when he was maintaining his innocence — he made a phone call to his niece.
"During that phone call, the offender made admissions to hitting Dr Johnson at the cliff," the document states.
This was consistent with prior admissions White made to two other witnesses in 2020, according to the agreed facts.
Outside court, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Yeomans said it was an "emotional day" but that police were "very happy" with White's admission of guilt.
"Especially the Johnson family; they've been through a very traumatic time over the last 34 years and that really vindicates that family," he said.
He spoke about the efforts of Steve Johnson to bring justice to the family.
"He's been out to Australia dozens of times to get some sort of justice for his brother," the detective said.
"He was adamant from the very first day that he was rung by police that it wasn't a suicide — that it was foul play involved. It's vindicated everything he said."
Inspector Yeomans said there was not a sense of disappointment about the charge changing from murder to manslaughter.
"We had Mr White get up today and say to the court, say to the family, that he killed their brother, their uncle."
Johnson's family intend on travelling to Sydney for White's sentencing in June.
