Hate criminals 'threw gay men off cliffs' in the 1980s

Throwing gay men off cliffs was the preferred modus operandi of Sydney's gay-hate criminals in the 1980s with teenagers among the suspects, an inquiry has been told.

The special commission of inquiry is probing several police strike forces formed to investigate suspected hate crimes between 1970 and 2010.

The focus of its current hearings is the workings of Strike Force Parrabell, a three-year review of 88 deaths of LGBTQI people in NSW from 1976 to 2000.

Parrabell's final report in 2018 concluded 23 deaths remained unsolved.

Current and former senior NSW Police officers are giving evidence about Parrabell and other strike forces such as Neiwand, Macnamir and Operation Taradale.

Former homicide squad commander Michael Willing was on Monday grilled about how police followed leads on three victims found dead in separate incidents - Giles Mattaini, Ross Warren and John Russell - on a popular beat at Marks Park in Bondi in 1989.

Senior counsel assisting Peter Gray quoted Senior Deputy Coroner Jacqueline Milledge in 2005, saying their deaths were not accidental.

"Many of the Marks Park victims that reported to police told of hearing their assailants threatening to throw them off the cliff face," he said.

"This was the modus operandi of some gay-hate assailants ... this strongly supports the probability that Mr Warren, Mr Mattaini and Mr Russell met their deaths this way."

The persons of interest at the time were aged between 16 and 18, the inquiry was told.

Putting Mr Willing's witness statement under scrutiny, Mr Gray questioned how active police were in attempting to solve such crimes.

"You say if the review revealed a previously unknown pattern of gay-hate homicides potentially involving overlapping perpetrators who remained at large, it may well have been appropriate for particular matters to be afforded a higher level of priority or resources," Mr Gray said.

"Such a pattern was all too well known at that point, wasn't it?

"My question is, would that come as a surprise to you, that that had been spelt out as long ago as 1990?"

Mr Willing, who commanded the homicide squad from 2011 to 2017, said it was not an easy question.

"That's a difficult question to answer Mr Gray, because I don't the know context behind or the evidence behind," he replied, before relenting and saying it was not surprising.

Mr Gray pushed Mr Willing on the case of US mathematician Scott Johnson who was found dead at the bottom of cliffs at Manly in northern Sydney in 1988.

His death was initially ruled a suicide before the case was reopened in 2012 after pressure from his family, and Strikeforce Macnamir was established in February 2013. 

A coroner in 2017 determined the matter involved human intervention.

"You say, as your view, that Macnamir investigators have not discovered any evidence at all to confirm that Scott Johnson was the victim of a homicide let alone a gay hate murder?", Mr Gray asked

"That's right ... yes at the time," Mr Willing replied.

Last year, Sydney man Scott White was sentenced in May to nearly 13 years in after unexpectedly pleading guilty to the murder of Mr Johnson but he had his conviction quashed. The case is still before the courts.

In hearings held late last year, Assistant Police Commissioner Anthony Crandell admitted past police indifference to gay bashings had been coupled with a tacit social tolerance.

The inquiry continues.