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Australian True Crime

Shortcut: The Prejudice in Policing That Left Cases Unsolved

Australian True Crime

Meshel Laurie

True Crime

4.6979 Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2024

⏱️ 16 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

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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Lifeline  on 13 11 14

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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

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

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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