Sydney man jailed three s after killg Stt Johnson at gay beat | New South Wal | The Guardian

Contents:

• NSW QUIRY TO VTIGATE 40 YEARS OF UNSOLVED SYDNEY GAY HATE ATHS
• DEEP WATER: WERE 30 UNSOLVED SYDNEY ATHS REALLY GAY HATE CRIM?
• HOW THE 1988 GAY HATE CRIME MURR OF STT JOHNSON SYDNEY WAS ROLVED
• BONDI RISE MEMORIAL HONOURS VICTIMS OF SYDNEY GAY HATE CRIM DURG 1970S TO 1990S
• ATRALIAN MAN IS CONVICTED OF KILLG GAY AMERIN 1980S
• FOUR OTHER GAY-HATE CRIM BEG VTIGATED BY NSW POLICE AFTER STT JOHNSON MURR CHARGE
• COMMISSN VTIGAT FOUR S OF UNSOLVED ANTI-GAY KILLGS ATRALIA
• NSW POLICE LOSE URT BID TO EXCLU STT JOHNSON KILLG OM GAY HATE QUIRY
• ATRALIAN QUIRY PROB 40 YEARS OF GAY HATE KILLGS
• 'UGLY PART OF OUR HISTORY': SYDNEY'S WAVE OF GAY-HATE ATHS EXPOSED
• SYDNEY MAN JAILED THREE S AFTER KILLG STT JOHNSON AT GAY BEAT
• SYDNEY MAN GETS 12 YEARS FOR MURRG GAY AMERIN 1988
• SYDNEY GAY HATE CRIM: POLICE TASKFORCE SAYS 'S 'ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE' TO INTIFY BIAS
• MAN CHARGED SYDNEY WH GAY MURR AFTER 32 YEAR LEGAL BATTLE
• GAY BASHGS, HOMOPHOBIA: FORMER P RELLS HORROR YEARS NSW POLICE FORCE
• AN ATRALIAN MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO MANSLGHTER ATH OF A GAY AMERIN 1988

NSW QUIRY TO VTIGATE 40 YEARS OF UNSOLVED SYDNEY GAY HATE ATHS

NSW Premier Domic Perrottet has announced the most extensive quiry to dozens of Sydney gay hate aths that have gone unsolved some s for more than half a pots:Gay hate crim were rampant durg the 1980s and 1990s SydneyA parliamentary mtee prevly found police failed to vtigate many spected gay hate murrsThe upg quiry will have signifint powers, cludg the summong of wnsThe special missn of quiry will be led by Supreme Court judge John Sackar and will vtigate 88 unsolved murrs mted agast LGBTQI people om 1970 to is thought the quiry may lead to new evince beg unvered or brg prevly unreported crim to light. In 2012 the New South Wal puty state roner Carmel Forb overturned the suici fdg but uld not terme how he police have formed Operatn Parrabell, a team of eight tectiv who will apply an FBI measure of hate bias – creria to terme if a crime is motivated by bias agast, for stance, sexual orientatn – to see if as many as 88 Sydney aths datg om the 1970s onward, cludg 30 unsolved s, were gay hate s were marked suici or e unknown, but past police nclns are now beg lled to qutn. Photograph: Sean O'Reilly/SBSThe ‘gay ATM’It was not until 2005, 17 years after Stt Johnson’s ath, that Steve realised his beloved brother might have died vlently: he had been sent a clippg about the vlent aths of three other gay men year the NSW senr puty state roner Jacquele Milledge found that the televisn newsrear Ross Warren, 25, and barman John Rsell, 31, had been murred two separate attacks 1989, most probably thrown off a cliff at Bondi’s Marks Park, which was known as a gay beat.

His brother says this was an implsible ncln: many gay men have told his vtigatn that the area had been a popular beat sce the 1960s but gay men were often too sred to report asslts bee “police treated them like perpetrators, not victims”’s vtigatn also clud terviewg former gay-bashg gang members, who had sentially operated wh impuny bee there was still a “lot of hatred towards gays”, he says. Detectiv arrted Whe at his Lane Cove home on Sydney's north shore May 2020 and charged him wh wasn't known to police before an rmant me forward wh rmatn, but tectiv said he wasn't surprised when police knocked on his years earlier, the NSW ernment had announced a $1 ln reward for rmatn that lead to the arrt and nvictn of Mr Johnson's 2020, his brother Steve Johnson doubled the reward by makg a personal ntributn of $1 ln — the first of s kd reward and last year's arrt followed two police vtigatns and three ronial first, 1989, found Mr Johnson mted suici — somethg his brother and fay had always open fdg was returned the June 2012 qut and wasn't until 2017 that then-roner Michael Barn led the ath was the rult of a gay hate Force Welsford was set up soon after by NSW Police, led by Detective Chief Inspector Peter said police had fought long and hard to break through a wall of silence volvg two groups wh rmatn – those who were volved the attack and those who were told.

(Supplied: NSW Police)Durg the fal qut, was also unvered how police failed to vtigate many gay hate crim that took place Sydney over s, spe many 2017 qut heard that a group of Narrabeen skheads had bragged about assltg an "Amerin faggot" around the same time Mr Johnson had qut was also told that soldiers at the Army School of Artillery at North Head ed to brag about attackg gay men and nsired "fun and gam". Gangs like the Bondi Boys (otherwise known by their graffi tag PTK, or People that Kill) would prowl here, rryg out brazen acts of vlence; ’s likely that at least a few were serial offenrs; perpetrators of an anti-gay murr spree that swept across Sydney at the is no simple whodunn; volv a tangled tale of hate crim volvg multiple spects, gangs prisg up to 30 members, some of whom circulated among other gangs across Sydney, posg a dark mosaic of murr. This is a lot more than n be said for the other men killed here, or for that matter, the vast majory of other murrs of gay men blightg Sydney at the a year to the day earlier, on another eezg night July 1989, Ross Warren, a handsome, charismatic weatherman and newsrear om WIN-TV Wollongong, vanished on this headland the early hours of a Saturday morng.

DEEP WATER: WERE 30 UNSOLVED SYDNEY ATHS REALLY GAY HATE CRIM?

Activists splattered red pat over 11 cy buildgs, cludg state parliament, the Downg Centre urt plex, and the headquarters of Channel 10 and The Sydney Morng Herald, then loted Jon Street, class were sprgg up ner-cy gyms and muny groups, and a group of gay volunteers – some of them former members of the army, navy and police force – began foot patrols along Oxford Street and Darlghurst Street foot patrol RtersStill, the murrs ntued. In May, one of their own, social science teacher Wayne Tonks, was murred his Artarmon apartment by two young men (not his stunts) was outrage when the so-lled gay panic fence, a cel wrkle the law that enabled killers to claim an alleged sexual advance provoked them to a murro rage, was ed the murr trial of Christopher McKnon, arrted for killg Mrice McCarty, a technician wh the Atralian Ballet, April 1991.

It's a vlent slice of Sydney history — gay men beaten parks, hurled off cliffs or vanishg om the cy's streets s barely probed by horrific crim were dredged up aga this week when police charged a man over the 1988 murr of Stt 27-year-old's ath was the most high-profile gay hate attack Harbour Cy events that lead to his smashed body beg found at the base of cliffs near North Head were examed three ronial quts. His body was never 2005, then-puty roner Jacquele Milledge characterised the vtigatn as "grossly aquate and shameful" and said Warren was "a victim of homici" year, the NSW Upper Hoe mtee quirg to gay and transgenr hate crim between 1970 and 2010 received evince police officers lookg to Warren's disappearance chose to "sile" the mtee heard that 2001, former NSW Police Detective Sergeant Steve Page found major issu wh the way Warren's se was Detective Sergeant would go on to form Strike Force Taradale, which intified lks between Warren's spected murr and many other gay killgs.

HOW THE 1988 GAY HATE CRIME MURR OF STT JOHNSON SYDNEY WAS ROLVED

(Supplied)Raymond Frerick Keam's body was found lyg the grass at the northern end of Alison Park Randwick on January 13, 44-year-old father-of-two, who had a black belt karate, was beaten to right troer pocket was pulled out and the glove box and boot of his r, parked 40 metr away, were ransacked, their ntents strewn around the said the Alison Park public toilets were a well-known gay beat and men who were perceived to be gay were often the victims of ser asslts and robberi the time, the ma spect was a man who intified as gay and lived oppose the park where Keam was found. William AllenWilliam Allen was found ad his Newton Street home on December 29, 1988 wh several head juri which he staed the prev eveng Alexandria was driven by a passg motorist who spotted him wh blood over his hands and retired school teacher, who worked at Newgton College, said he was bashed and kicked to the ground by "a uple of Aborigal boys" who then took his keys and the time of his murr, he was unr vtigatn for cultivatg and sellg nnabis to young mal for sex and was known to equent a gay beat at Alexandria were no clear spects, but NSW Police noted the circumstanc around his ath were siar to the later murr of Richard Johnson 1990, which led to the nvictn of the "Alexandria Eight", who bashed him to retrospectively vtigated the eight offenrs — aged 16 to 18 — but did not have enough evince to charge anyone wh Allen's murr.

BONDI RISE MEMORIAL HONOURS VICTIMS OF SYDNEY GAY HATE CRIM DURG 1970S TO 1990S

A special missn heard evince on Wednday regardg unsolved aths tied to more than 40 years of anti-gay hate crim Atralia's most populo state, where police were notorly different to such Special Commissn of Inquiry to LGBTIQ Hate Crim New South Wal is the "first of s kd anywhere the world, " a lawyer assistg the quiry, Peter Gray, said at the hearg's outset Sydney. Vlence agast gay men Sydney was particularly prevalent om the mid-1980s until the early 1990s due to creased hostily and fear stemmg om the AIDS epimic, acrdg to a prev report by ACON, a nonprof anizatn that foc on health issu affectg LGBTQ people and people livg wh half of the 88 "gay hate" and "anti-gay bias" aths New South Wal between 1976 and 2000 occurred that perd, the report clu Stt Johnson, a 27-year-old Los Angel-born mathematician whose fatal fall om a Sydney clifftop 1988 was ially dismissed by police as killer, Stt Whe, 52, was sentenced May to 12 years prison after pleadg guilty to murr.

ATRALIAN MAN IS CONVICTED OF KILLG GAY AMERIN 1980S

That quiry found the police force "failed s rponsibili to properly vtigate s of historil gay and transgenr hate crime, " unrmg LGTBQ nfince the crimal jtice quiry last year remend the tablishment of the current judicial quiry wh powers to force wns to new quiry, led by New South Wal Supreme Court Jtice John Sackar, will re-exame the 86 aths durg the 24-year wdow and make s own termatn about which on rema quiry has also examed New South Wal fil of more than 700 unsolved murrs and more than 500 missg persons om 1970 until 2010 for potential gay hate and anti-gay bias quiry mt report by June 30. In the latt velopment, Stt Phillip Whe plead guilty to throwg the punch that ultimately ed Johnson to fall to his month, jtice Robert Beech-Jon dismissed “what appears to be an absurd suggtn [by police] that Dr Johnson killed himself” when sentencg Whe to ne years past newsletter promotnafter newsletter promotnNSW police had argued Johnson’s ath was outsi the current quiry’s terms of reference on the basis the matter was not unsolved, the man rponsible for his ath intified as gay and a sentencg judge did not fd the ath to be motivated by gay the quiry’s missner, jtice John Sackar, on Tuday led s terms of reference were much wir and answers to qutns such as how and why Johnson died were still not urt did not make a fdg beyond reasonable doubt that Whe was motivated by gay hate, but did not le out the possibily, he is due to hand down his fal report next month.

CANBERRA, Atralia (AP) — A ernment quiry began hearg evince on Wednday of unsolved aths rultg om gay hate crim over four s Atralia’s most populo state where police were notorly different to such Special Commissn of Inquiry to LGBTIQ Hate Crim New South Wal is the “first of s kd anywhere the world, ” a lawyer assistg the quiry, Peter Gray, said at the hearg’s outset Sydney.

Vlence agast gay men Sydney was particularly prevalent om the mid-1980s until the early 1990s due to creased hostily and fear stemmg om the AIDS epimic, a prev report by an HIV support group, ACON, half of the 88 “gay hate” and “anti-gay bias” aths New South Wal between 1976 and 2000 occurred that perd, the report clu Stt Johnson, a 27-year-old Los Angel-born mathematician whose fatal fall om a Sydney clifftop 1988 was ially dismissed by police as killer, Stt Whe, 52, was sentenced May to 12 years prison after pleadg guilty to murr. That quiry found the police force “failed s rponsibili to properly vtigate s of historil gay and transgenr hate crime, ” unrmg LGTBQ nfince the crimal jtice quiry last year remend the tablishment of the current judicial quiry wh powers to force wns to new quiry, led by New South Wal Supreme Court Jtice John Sackar, will re-exame the 86 aths durg the 24-year wdow and make s own termatn about which on rema unsolved.

FOUR OTHER GAY-HATE CRIM BEG VTIGATED BY NSW POLICE AFTER STT JOHNSON MURR CHARGE

An extensive review of 88 spic aths Sydney between 1976 and 2000 has revealed almost a third were the rult of crim volvg spected or nfirmed gay-hate to 10 crimal vtigators have spent three years reviewg the aths, which had been highlighted by rearchers as havg potential gay-hate bias motivatn, or a nnectn wh the LGBTIQ as Strike Force Parrabell, the vtigatn's report, to be ma public on Wednday, has found evince of gay-hate bias or spected bias 27 s while 23 of the aths also rema of the 88 aths were removed om the vtigatn - one bee took place outsi of NSW and the other had no rerds to Rsell's body was found at the base of a cliff at Tamarama.

Mr Warren's body has never been ath of young mathematician Stt Johnson, whose 1988 ath was also termed to be the rult of a gay hate crime durg an extraordary third ronial qut November last fdg was reaffirmed by Strike Force Force Parrabell was lnched followg a submissn to the Atralian Instute of Crimology 2013, which intified potential gay-hate motivatns 88 spic aths across the wake of the submissn and subsequent media reports, police intified an urgent need to unver evince of homosexual bias among the 88 aths, as well as addrs allegatns of liberate police actn, police participatn gay bashgs and police btaly.

COMMISSN VTIGAT FOUR S OF UNSOLVED ANTI-GAY KILLGS ATRALIA

In most of the 23 unsolved aths, such as that of 61-year-old Cyril Olsen who was found floatg face down Rhcutters Bay Augt 1992, vtigators said they had sufficient rmatn to tablish if was, or wasn't a bias those nfirmed to be gay-hate killgs, by both Parrabell and the pennt universy review team, was the murr of Patrick O'Neill at the hands of an 18-year-old male O'Neill was found ad his un on Bayswater Road Kgs Cross 68-year-old had been stabbed numero tim to his cht and throat, before he was vered newspapers and clothg and set alight. Raymond Keam was found ad Alison Park, Randwick January Randall Walsh, then 18, had left the Kgs Cross apartment after engagg nsensual sex wh Mr O'Neill, only to return wh a pair of scissors he would e to flict the vic subsequent police terviews Walsh ma repeated rogatory ments about homosexuals, while also acknowledgg nfn over his own was nvicted of manslghter and sentenced to 12 years jail. Insufficient rmatn meant the 25 remag s uld not be termed as eher gay-hate related or not, 14 of which are still the 63 solved s, which a domant motivatn uld be termed, ne were classified as gay-hate crim, six were classified as motivated by paedophile-bias, 32 were found to be motivated by robbery, while 14 s attracted other motivatns.

"The report ma twelve remendatns, cludg the need for revised bias crime ditor asssment tools; ongog ethil and cultural trag to specifilly clu LGBTIQ experienc and ntued improvements to electronic se file twelve will be implemented by NSW Police Commissner Mick month HIV preventn group ACON released s own report to "gay and transgenr prejudice killgs NSW the late 20th century, " which remend a formal apology by NSW Police to the LGBTI muny for "the aquate or slow rpons to vlence throughout this perd" is unrstood Assistant Commissner Cranll tends to brief Commissner Fuller about the prospect of an apology. Jtice Helen Wilson on Tuday found that a hostile act Stt Whe had punched Stt Johnson at North Head Manly, g Johnson to fall to his found there was not enough evince to prove to a crimal level that the killg was a gay hate crime, even if was “very likely” to have been motivated by the victim’s oute ends a long-nng oral for Johnson’s fay who pursued jtice for more than three s, refg to believe an ial police qut which found the ath was a Johnson’s body was found at the bottom of North Head Sydney December 1988.

NSW POLICE LOSE URT BID TO EXCLU STT JOHNSON KILLG OM GAY HATE QUIRY

“[Whe] did a vlent act and that act is the direct e of Dr Johnson leavg the clifftop terror, ” the judge explaed the asslt had been done wh a reckls difference to human life, notg the punch occurred atop an unguard cliff and Whe never alerted police after Johnson noted migatg factors that stopped her om handg down a life sentence clud Whe’s guilty plea, his challengg childhood, mental health issu and long-term alhol Johnson’s fay had hoped the se would be led a gay hate crime, sister Rebec hoped would serve as a bean for other fai who lost men around the same time siar circumstanc, and prove to police the s were worth pursug s later. Assistant Commissner Tony Cranll released the fdgs of Strike Force Parrabell — a police taskforce set up nearly three years to review the aths of 86 gay have been 63 s solved, wh a third classified as bias or spected bias crim, and another 23 s referred to the Unsolved Homici Squad for further fal report acknowledg "whout qualifitn both s and society's acceptance of gay bashgs and vlence directed towards gay men" durg that perd the report, along wh an amic review by Flrs Universy, found "almost impossible" to intify a "gay-hate bias" om police vtigators workg on the s. "Firstly, bias is ually only picked up the first stance; sendly, animosy towards homosexualy don't always leave a physil trace and thirdly; 's really hard to fd out what's an offenr's md, particularly if police are yet to intify a spect or offenr, " he Force Parrabell refers to the AIDS crisis, which began the 1980s, beg partly rponsible for fuellg homophobic attus and rultg gay men beg "targets of vlence", who were "unlikely to seek police volvement or assistance".

Some of the key on clu:Makg sure there are hard and electronic pi for all crimal sCrime asssments are nducted wh an open md regardg motiveContued LGBTQI trag for all NSW Police officersAmic guidance to terme early intifitn of bias crimCalls for pennt quiry so police don't self-vtigateThe State Opposn has lled for a NSW parliamentary quiry to the dozens of spected gay hate murrs that took place Sydney at the end of the last centuryOpposn Lear Le Foley said he was not fully satisfied the gay muny was protected om homophobic AIDS Council of NSW (ACON) weled the fdgs of Strike Force Parabell, but renewed lls for an pennt vtigatn to the police handlg of gay hate crim. LONDON (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - A man was charged on Tuday wh the murr of Amerin cizen at a notor gay meetg spot Sydney after a nearly 32-year legal battle, wh LGBT+ groups llg for more vtigatns to unsolved gay killgs the Atralian PhD stunt Stt Johnson, 27, was found ad at the base of a cliff near Manly’s North Head 1988, but his fay refed to accept an qut’s fdgs that he had mted brother Steve led a mpaign for a full vtigatn and 2017 a roner led Johnson died “as a rult of actual or threatened vlence by unintified persons who attacked him bee they perceived him to be homosexual”, police om the state of New South Wal (NSW) said a 49-year-old man was arrted Sydney on Tuday and charged wh murr.

“Stt’s fay never wavered the fight for jtice; ditg their time and efforts to Stt’s honour, and today, I hope this arrt n brg them some kd of peace, ” NSW Mister for Police and Emergency Servic David Elltt said a arrt me after the NSW police 2017 set up Strike Force Welsford to vtigate the se, which volved offerg a AU$1 ln ($650, 000) reward for new rmatn that led to a nvictn, a figure matched by Johnson’s NSW police did not say if any reward would be groups weled the arrt and lled for the vtigatn of more unsolved aths and disappearanc of gay men and transgenr women. ”A 2019 NSW ernment report, “Gay and Transgenr hate crim between 1970 and 2010”, intified four men who were murred, died or disappeared between 1985 and 1990 at a different Sydney clifftop to where Johnson 1989 a fifth man survived after beg beaten and almost thrown off the same cliff, an area known as a place for gay men met for sex, the report said.

ATRALIAN QUIRY PROB 40 YEARS OF GAY HATE KILLGS

After the victim, the edor of a gay newspaper, wrote a posive story about Higgbotham and the Darlghurst police, he was seen as some kd of avenger and protector for the gay muny by at least two senr staff at the statn, who subjected him to a soul-stroyg bullyg mpaign, at s nastit durg the ‘taskg para’ at the mencement of each shift, when jobs were alloted.

As early as next week, a cisn will be ma on whether a judicial quiry will proceed to the large number of unsolved s of spected gay and transgenr hate crime aths between 1970 and gby league footballer, now actor, Ian Roberts, says the horrific anti-gay crime spree rollg across Sydney the late 1980s and early 1990s ntributed to his cisn to postpone his g out as gay (he had planned to e out at the end of 1989 football season, but didn’t fally do so until 1994) Roberts layed g out partially bee of the gay bashgs and murrs occurrg Wolter Peeters“The public backlash agast soccer player Jt Fashanu (who me out October 1990) also ma me hate, ” says Roberts.

'UGLY PART OF OUR HISTORY': SYDNEY'S WAVE OF GAY-HATE ATHS EXPOSED

SYDNEY MAN JAILED THREE S AFTER KILLG STT JOHNSON AT GAY BEAT

SYDNEY MAN GETS 12 YEARS FOR MURRG GAY AMERIN 1988

SYDNEY GAY HATE CRIM: POLICE TASKFORCE SAYS 'S 'ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE' TO INTIFY BIAS

MAN CHARGED SYDNEY WH GAY MURR AFTER 32 YEAR LEGAL BATTLE

GAY BASHGS, HOMOPHOBIA: FORMER P RELLS HORROR YEARS NSW POLICE FORCE

AN ATRALIAN MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO MANSLGHTER ATH OF A GAY AMERIN 1988