SYDNEY, Australia — An Australian man who in January was convicted of killing a gay American doctoral student more than three decades ago by pushing him off a cliff received a sentence on Tuesday of 12 years.
In 1988, the American, Scott Johnson, 27, was a graduate student in mathematics who had moved to Australia to be with his partner.
On Dec. 8 of that year, Mr. Johnson met an Australian man, Scott White, at a pub in Sydney, and the two went to an open cliff face frequented by gay men.
Mr. Johnson’s body was discovered at the bottom of the cliff two days later. The original inquest into Mr. Johnson’s death ruled it a suicide.