John Hughes was an out gay man, known to his friends as ‘Skinny John’ and lived in Kings Cross-Potts Point area. In May 1989, 45-year-old Hughes was found dead in his apartment, with his hands and feet bound with an electrical cord and a pillow slip covering his head. He had suffered a blow to the back of his head with a blunt object and the cause of death was asphyxiation by a belt that was tightened around his head. A flatmate, who witnessed said had referred to Hughes as a “faggot” who “deserved to die” and was charged with the murder but was subsequently acquitted by a jury.