A man who admitted the 1988 killing of American mathematician Scott Johnson at a Sydney gay beat deserves no leniency and should face the longest time in jail, the dead man's brother has told a court.
Scott Phillip White, 52, faced the family's wrath in court on Tuesday after successfully overturning a prior guilty plea to the murder of Johnson in Manly and later pleading guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
White surprised his own legal team by making an early plea of guilty to murder in what Steve Johnson said looked like a show of remorse.
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"My sister Rosemary and I all felt some compassion because of his generous plea. Today I have no sympathy," he said in a victim impact statement read out to the NSW Supreme Court.
Any gratitude the family felt was undone after White's conviction and jail sentence were overturned on appeal, he told reporters after the hearing.
"So I am hoping the judge will give him the stiffest sentence he possibly can."
White's cowardly decision to flee the scene without calling the police had prolonged the family's grief and loss for decades, Johnson said.
"He didn't check on Scott, he didn't call for help, he notified no one. He simply let Scott die."
In her own statement, Rosemary Johnson had some heartfelt words for her sweet, kind and gentle brother-in-law.
"You are loved, you are missed, your life mattered, and you have not been forgotten," she said.
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In the heat of an argument on December 10, 1988, White threw a punch at Johnson causing the 27-year-old to stagger backwards and fall to his death over a cliff at North Head, which was known at the time to be a gay beat.
Originally deemed a suicide, NSW Police opened an investigation into what they thought was a gay hate crime almost three decades after the death.
In her now overturned judgment on the murder conviction, Justice Helen Wilson found there was not enough evidence to show the attack was motivated because of Johnson's sexuality.
Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield conceded that on Tuesday that Justice Robert Beech-Jones, the judge overseeing the new sentence, could also make this finding.
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However, he still sought a higher jail sentence, saying it was an unprovoked attack on a vulnerable individual who was naked in a remote location.
"It's a serious example of manslaughter entailing a significant degree of criminality," Hatfield said.
White's barrister Tim Game SC urged the court for leniency because of his client's cognitive difficulties at the time of the crime as well as his dysfunctional background.
"He had just become an adult and his life was chaotic and a terrible mess," the barrister said.
Justice Beech-Jones will hand down his sentence for White on Thursday.
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