Warning: The following story contains language which may offend some readers.
The ex-wife of a man who pleaded guilty to one of Sydney's most infamous gay hate murders says he often bragged about bashing homosexual men.
Scott Phillip White, 51, is being sentenced before the Supreme Court for the 1988 murder of American mathematician Scott Johnson at Sydney's North Head.
Johnson's body was found at the bottom of a cliff near Blue Fish Point. He was aged 27.
Police initially treated his death as a suicide but after three coronial inquests and several public appeals, officers charged White over the murder in 2020.
In January, White, to the surprise of his lawyers, pleaded guilty during a pre-trial hearing.
White and his legal team have since tried to withdraw it, focusing on a potential "cognitive impairment".
On Monday, White's ex-wife, Helen, told the court she twice asked him if he was responsible for Johnson's death — first in 1988 and again around September 2008.
She said she saw an article about Johnson in a newspaper around 2008 and asked White "did you do this?" to which he replied "the only good poofter is a dead poofter".
She says White then told her "it's not my fault the dumb c**t ran off the cliff" and she said "it is if you chased him".
Ms White revealed her ex-husband often bragged about bashing gay men in his youth, even telling their six children about his past.
In 1988 Ms White saw a photo of Johnson in a newspaper and asked her then husband if he was responsible for the crime.
"He replied, 'oh that girly looking poofter?' ... we then had a bit of an argument," she told the court.
Ms White eventually tipped the police off to her ex-husband's involvement in Johnson's death, writing an anonymous letter to a detective mentioned in a news story.
Several members of Johnson's family read out victim impact statements to the court today, all remembering the mathematician's gentle and shy demeanour.
White, wearing prison greens, listened from the court dock and occasionally nodded.
Johnson's then partner Michael Noone recounted the "sheer horror" of getting a call from police requesting him to identify the body of his "best friend".
"No-one can imagine what it was like to be shown his lifeless and very badly damaged body," he said.
"It's an indelible image that is burnt into the brain ... it's an excruciatingly grotesque spectre that I'll be taking to my own grave."
Mr Noone lived with Johnson in the US and the UK before they moved to start a life in Australia which he said they were both excited for.
"Our dreams and plans died with him ... I lost a partner and my mum and dad lost a son."
Johnson's older sister, Terry, spoke directly to White and asked why he wanted to harm her brother who "wouldn't hurt a fly" and said he deserved life in prison.
"This hateful person who killed Scott has been walking free on this earth for the past 33 years," she said.
Johnson's other sister, Rebecca, broke down as she begged White to let this be the "final chapter".
White, who will be sentenced for the crime on Tuesday, has already lodged an appeal against the conviction.
Johnson's brother Steve, who spent three decades campaigning for justice, became emotional while addressing the court about the "agonising" grief he lives with.
He said he once curled into a "sobbing heap" for 30 minutes outside a ski shop when he was reminded of his brother and would never forget the "wailing cry" their mother made when she found out he was dead.
Steve Johnson told White he appreciated his guilty plea but said the 33-year delay in his admission had compounded the family's "grief and loneliness".
He lamented the fact his brother, who was a high-achieving mathematician, had missed the "golden era for nerds" and some progress made for LGBTQI people across the world.
Steve Johnson hired a private investigator to prove his brother had met foul play and doubled the NSW government's $1 million reward for information by another $1 million in 2020.
Outside court he told the media how important it was to be in the same room as his brother's murderer.
"Being able to express myself in court, being able to look him in the eye was really important," he said.
"I got to tell him what my brother was like, I got to tell him how it felt to hear he was dead."
Former NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller previously said Johnson's murder was one of the most difficult cases he had worked on and that officers should be "embarrassed" about their failures to investigate gay hate crimes in the 70s and 80s.
White's legal team claimed his ex-wife's evidence was fabricated and that their client's culpability should be reduced because of his compromised intellectual and psychiatric state, and the fact he was 18 at the time of the crime.
His lawyer also revealed White was gay himself and had long been afraid of his homophobic brother finding out about sexuality.
