A witness has walked back the evidence he gave NSW Police in 2013 about gay hate bashings on Sydney's northern beaches, saying they weren't as numerous or around North Head where a young American was found dead in 1988.
He had told NSW detectives in 2013 a group of men committed more than 20 gay hate assaults and robberies on Sydney's northern beaches between 1986 and 1988 at various locations with up to five occurring at North Head.
The body of 27-year-old American mathematician Scott Johnson was found at the bottom of the cliff at Manly's North Head in December 1988.
The police source, who can't be named for legal reasons, this week gave evidence behind closed doors at the third coronial inquest into Mr Johnson's death.
In a summary of the source's evidence, released on Friday evening, it's been suggested the North Head assaults took place in an area of scrub with clearings.
One of the members of the group sometimes acted as "bait" to make contact with a victim.
"The information did not suggest that any of the group had ever pushed anyone off a cliff," the summary of the evidence states.
In 2014, the source told police the number of times the group travelled to North Head to commit gay-hate crimes was fewer than he had indicated in 2013.
The source in 2017 "has said that some of the earlier information was not accurate", the summary of his evidence states.
The source now claims the assaults and robberies said to have been committed in the late 1980s at North Head "had in fact been committed at either Reef Beach or at an area of North Head that was different to the area he had previously indicated to police".
