Shortcut: The Prejudice in Policing That Left Cases Unsolved

Australian True Crime

Meshel Laurie

True Crime

4.6 • 979 Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2024

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is a "Shortcut" episode. It’s a shortened version of this week’s more detailed full episode, which is also available on our feed.

In a recent episode, we spoke about the decades-long fight for justice for Scott Johnson, whose 1988 death in Sydney was initially ruled a suicide by police, despite evidence of a wider pattern of gay hate crimes.

Today, we’re joined by Sue Thompson, one of the key Australians who supported Scott’s brother, Steve, in his quest for the truth.

A former lawyer turned police officer, Sue spent 17 years creating programs to bridge the divide between NSW Police and the LGBTQIA+ community, helping to address the entrenched prejudice that plagued investigations like Scott’s.

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CREDITS:

Host: Meshel Laurie. You can find her on Instagram

Guest: Sue Thompson

Executive Producer/Editor: Matthew Tankard

This episode contains extra content from the ABC and Channel 10.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Recently we spoke to Steve Johnson, an American tech entrepreneur whose younger brother
0:09.3	Scott was the victim of a gay hate murder in Sydney in 1988.
0:14.0	Steve spoke about the decades of difficulty he faced in having his brother's death
0:18.4	investigated as a murder by the manly police,
0:21.6	who insisted for many years that it was a suicide
0:24.8	and unrelated to the deaths of other gay men in similar circumstances around
0:29.3	Sydney. Steve was at pains though to point out that his ultimately successful quest to have
0:34.9	Scott's murderer brought to justice relied heavily on a number of Australians who
0:39.3	rallied to his cause and never gave up. He calls those people team Scott and one of them joins us on
0:45.9	Australian true crime today. Sue Thompson began her professional career as a lawyer but
0:51.3	she ended up spending 17 years with New South Wales police. as a and the gay and lesbian community. Sue's mission was to reduce the incidents of gay hate crimes across New South Wales,
1:07.0	which was a massive ask given the complete lack of engagement between the two groups at the time.
1:12.0	This is Australian True Crime,
1:15.2	produced with respect on Waragery country of the Kulin Nation. And a warning,
1:20.8	this episode of the podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence. I am Hypnot. Recycle your electacles.
1:34.0	Recycle your electacles.
1:36.0	Don't being your electacles.
1:38.0	Recycle your electacles.
1:39.0	Anything with a plug battery or cable can be recycled into life-saving equipment or tiny kitten cycles
1:46.4	cables kettles phones for boats toasters toys headphones shaver speakers batteries
1:51.9	cameras tablets laptops lamps, and chargers.
1:54.2	Bag them up and search, recycle your electacles to find your local drop-off points.
	...

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