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Willing told the inquiry in Sydney on Thursday he did not request a third coronial inquest in March 2014,when he was commander of the homicide squad. An inquest had been sought by the Johnson family.

Instead,he “asked the coroner to re-examine it and what form that took was a matter for him”.The third inquest commenced in April 2015.

Scott Johnson's body was found at the base of a cliff at North Head on December 10,1988.

Willing agreed he did not believe evidence available at the time would have led to a different conclusion to the second inquest,but he “felt that an inquest would be appropriate ... because of the way that the[police] investigation had led to,I guess,the breakdown of the relationship with the Johnson family[and] the speculation around what might have happened to Scott”.

“I felt that the best way of getting to the bottom of it and providing some confidence to the Johnson family and the wider public was for an inquest to occur,” he said.

Willing agreed with Supreme Court Justice John Sackar,who is presiding over the inquiry,that he thought the third inquest might “clear the air once and for all”.

However,he was surprised when Barnes concluded in November 2017 that Johnson died as a result of a gay-hate attack.

“I was surprised,but it was necessarily left for him to make that finding and consider the three hypotheses that were put to him,” Willing said.

“It didn’t clear the air in terms of our relationship with the Johnson family.”

The inquiry has heard NSW Police submitted to the third inquest that suicide was the most likely cause of Johnson’s death and that,while homicide could not be ruled out,a homicide finding was not open.

Counsel assisting the inquiry,Peter Gray,SC,asked Willing in February this year:“You didn’t give instructions to make such submissions?”

“Not from my recollection. I wasn’t part of the homicide squad[at that time],” Willing said.

Willing said that “I would have thought,on what I knew at the time,that an open finding would be
appropriate. That’s my view.”

In May 2020,Sydney man Scott Phillip White wascharged with murder over Johnson’s death. Whitepleaded guilty to manslaughter in February this year and will be sentenced later this year.

According to a statement of agreed facts,signed by White,he told witnesses in March 2020 that he used to go “poofter bashing” but was secretly gay,and that he and Johnson went to North Head together after meeting at a Manly pub.

White told them he did not have sex with Johnson and did not know why he took his clothes off,but that the two of them had a “fight” and he swung the first punch before Johnson stumbled and fell off the cliff,the document states.

The inquiry has previously heard about a secretive NSW Police strike force that re-investigated the deaths of three men at Bondi in the 1980s after a coroner found in 2005 that all three were potential victims of gay-hate crimes.

Strike Force Neiwand effectively reversed the coroner’s findings about the deaths of Ross Warren,John Russell and Gilles Mattaini,the inquiry heard. But Willing said on Thursday that Neiwand was set up as a genuine re-investigation and was not designed to undermine or contradict the coronial findings.

Sackar announced on Thursday that the inquiry was seeking a two-month extension to complete its report,from June 30 to August 30. The extension has yet to be granted by the state government.

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