Last year a Sydney Coroner declared that the death of Scott Johnson was declared to most likely be the result of gay hate crime.
Johnson’s family had searched for answers into his death almost 30 years, and had fought hard for a third inquest into his death. The young mathematician’s naked body was found at the base of a cliff in 1988, and as his family investigated his mysterious death they were alarmed to hear of many accounts of gay men being bashed by vigilante groups in the 1970’s and 1980s.
Now a police task force that looked into 88 unexplained deaths between 1978 and 2000 has admitted that a third of the cases it looked in to are likely to be gay hate crimes.
Strike Force Parrabell, which saw ten investigators spend three years looking into the cases, has released its report saying it found evidence of gay hate bias or suspected bias in 27 of the cases it reviewed, while 23 cases remained unsolved.
“It’s an ugly part of our history,” said Assistant Commissioner Tony Crandell, the police’s spokesman for Sexuality, Gender Diversity, and Intersex.
“It needs to be acknowledged and we need to do everything we can to make sure no one is ever again fearful for their life because of who they are.”
Assistant Commissioner Crandell said that while the police cannot change the past, they can change the future.
Read more at the Sydney Morning Herald
Last month ACON – the AIDS Council of New South Wales released it’s own report into the unexplained deaths and recommended that the NSW Police consider making an apology to the LGBTI community for their slow response to the many under-investigated crimes.
OIP Staff
