Australian police have charged a man with the decades-old murder of a gay US student in Sydney. The body of Scott Johnson, 27, was found at the bottom of beach cliffs in 1988. Police ruled it a suicide. However, later inquiries concluded he had been killed in a hate crime. This also drew attention to other cases of homophobic killings around Sydney’s beaches in the 1980s. Scott Price, 49, was arrested at his Sydney home on Tuesday. He was refused bail and will face a court on Wednesday.

The New South Wales police chief said it was a “career highlight” to call Scott Johnson’s brother, Steve, who lives in the US, to inform him of the arrest. The police force has previously apologised to the family for not investigating the case properly in the 1980s and failing to protect the gay community. “While we have a long way to go in the legal process, it must be acknowledged that if it wasn’t for the determination of the Johnson family… we wouldn’t be where we are today,” Commissioner Mick Fuller said.(BBC)…[+]