"I was trying to get my life back together, the last thing I needed to do was think about this.". Rogerson and another former cop, Glen McNamara, were found guilty of shooting Gao inside a west Sydney storage . [4][5] During his time in office he was implicated inbut never convicted oftwo killings, bribery, assault and drug dealing.[6]. There was no gloating when disgraced detective Roger Rogerson learnt of the death in prison of once feared gangster Neddy Smith, his longtime accomplice turned ferocious foe. I dismissed it as bluster, but nonetheless looked over my shoulder for the next few days. His first experience of killing came in 1976 in the NSW town of Avoca Beach, where he and other officers rained gunfire on a house holding murderous criminal Phillip Western. The pair could often be found drinking with other police and criminals at inner-city pubs includingAlexandria's Star and Iron Duke, the Captain Cook at Millers Point and the Lord Wolseley in Ultimo. Rogerson has always maintained from that time on Smith was no more than a valuable informant for the Armed Hold-Up Squad. Smith was by then a pariah in the underworld and despised by the detectives he said had allowed him to make millions of dollars from dealing heroin and staging armed robberies. He spent a further three years in jail. "Because he was (Clint Eastwood's) Dirty Harry," says one veteran reporter. Drury spent 12 days in a coma, but survived. Roger Rogerson, a 75-year-old former detective who boasted about killing people and has already served three prison sentences, was on Wednesday found guilty in the death of a student drug dealer. Huckstepp's body was found floating in a pond at Centennial Park in 1986 and Smith would later be charged with murdering the sex worker, with unproven suggestions Rogerson had been involved. Rogerson, now 80, was in Long Bay's aged and frail unit last Wednesday when a prison officer told him 76-year-old Smith had died in the jail hospital. He was. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? The initial approach to Rogerson has been aired via a series of taped phone calls made between . CORRUPT cop and convicted killer Roger Rogerson has been working as a prison cleaner at Long Bay since he was jailed for life last year. Stephen Bear, who starred in several seasons of reality TV shows aired in Australia, has been jailed for 21 months for sharing a sex tape. Roger Rogerson In addition, two Hong Kong men drove Gao to the deadly drug deal and called New South Wales police 30 hours after he disappeared. Blue Murder shows the attempted murder of detective Michael Drury who was shot twice through his kitchen window alleged to have been taken down by Melbourne hitman Christopher Dale Flannery at Rogersons behest. Low income Aussies and pensioners could be forced out of homes, Tens of thousands flock to Bondi for one-off dance party, Major traffic chaos warning for Sydney across busiest weekend in years. [39] The journalist has refused to discuss the matter. [28] On the second day, the trial was aborted because of the potential prejudice caused after McNamara's then-barrister Charles Waterstreet made a reference to Rogerson "killing two or three people when he was in the police force. When Lanfranchi stepped out of the car, Rogerson shot him dead, claiming self defence. I left school at 16 with six GCSEs - and became a self-made millionaire. Based on the years before Smith was jailed for life for murder it depicts the armed robber and heroin dealer as a charismatic player on the Sydney scene. Rogerson, 75, has taken a job as the prison sweeper, which involves general cleaning duties like emptying bins and mopping floors, at the Kevin Waller Unit for aged and frail inmates. Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara sentenced to life in jail for Jamie Gao murder. Rogerson wanted me to tell him the 'real' McNamara story the one the jury didnt hear. He turned himself in after being spotted on surveillance, spun a story, and set up his former colleagues. Theres just something horribly wrong with Rogers head. In 1984, Duncan McNab was a New South Wales police internal affairs investigator when a deathbed statement from undercover drug cop Michael Drury came across his bosss desk. Rogerson, who was called to give evidence at the seven murder committals, denied ever taking money off Smith or that Jones had been paying him a bribe. [2][3] [19], In 2008, Rogerson reviewed episodes of the Underbelly series and Melbourne's underworld war in The Daily Telegraph[23] He also wrote about the 2009 series of Underbelly for the same paper. Read about our approach to external linking. A month into the trial, McNab realised this dark new chapter for Rogerson was no epilogue to his previous biography but a new book in the begging. Throughout their trial, Roger asserted McNamara was the architect of the deadly plot and he only gave grandfatherly advice.. That was close. Property News:House prices in some school catchments explode by up to $367,000 - domain.com.au, Your web browser is no longer supported. Rogerson who is now 80, and Glen McNamara, now 62, were jailed for life for the murder of drug dealer Jamie Gao. He was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease and, more recently dementia, and lives in a prison unit for aged and frail inmates. In January 1958, he joined the New South Wales Police Cadet Service. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. In 1984, Flannery moved his family up to Sydney and went to work as a bodyguard for crime figure George Freeman. There was no doubt this time that the lethal shot had been fired by Rogerson, who quipped that Burns "fell out of the car dead as a doornail". The murder attempt at Drurys Chatswood home makes for dramatic scenes in Blue Murder and the aftermath when Drury almost died from his gunshot wounds. It was one of the most high-profile court cases Australia has ever seen - at its conclusion, Rogerson was acquitted. Rogerson served twelve months of a maximum two-and-a-half-year sentence. As a public figure straddling corruption and crime in modern times, Rogerson has no peer, McNab says. In June 2016, Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara were found guilty of killing student Jamie Gao for his drugs (Partridge, 2016a). McNab uncovered one startling exception. During Rogerson's career, he was one of the most decorated officers in the police force, having received at least thirteen awards for bravery, outstanding policemanship and devotion to duty including the Peter Mitchell Trophy, the highest annual police award. Roger Rogerson being escorted to a prison van at the Supreme Court in Sydney in 2016. Credit: Dean Lewins/AAP Late last year, as Rogerson languished in a cell in the geriatric unit of Sydney's Long Bay jail over the Gao murder, I received a call from his wife Anne. Single mother faces 170 parking fine after overstaying at McDonald's for just 14 minutes while she treated Man had sex with his wife on bollard in protest after it had been erected by neighbour to stop him parking What will the next pandemic be? It was also alleged that Rogerson gave heroin dealer and underworld killer Arthur Stanley Neddy Smith the green light to commit crimes, in exchange for being an informant and a slice of the heroin trade. It would take years for the police to get serious about bringing its shiniest (though far from its only) rotten apple undone. In 1992 he gave evidence at an Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry into the relationship between police and criminals, implicating Rogerson and others in organised crime. Rogerson, 79, appeared in the Court of Criminal . A year later his autobiography Neddy was published with even more damning claims against Rogerson and the book became the basis for Blue Murder. According to Camden, the noted historian of the 16th century, this name Roger was a . In 1986, Huckstepp, also a sex worker, was found dead in a pond in central Sydney's Centennial Park. Drury alleged that Rogerson had tried to bribe him to changes his evidence in the heroin trial of Melbourne dealer Alan Williams. Drury was a Sydney detective whose dramatic attempted murder in 1984 believed to have been carried out by Melbourne hitman Chris Flannery brought an end to Roger Rogersons career. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. His sentencing in August will likely be seen as ending an era of deeply rooted police corruption. Huckstepp, a heroin addict and prostitute, appeared on numerous current affairs programs, including 60 Minutes and A Current Affair, demanding an investigation into the shooting. Former detective Roger Rogerson, 80, was in Long Bay's aged and frail unit when a prison officer told him Smith had died in the jail hospital. Former detectives Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara have been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Jamie Gao. He is pictured in 1980. More than one acquaintance describes Rogerson as a psychopath but the apparently remorseless killer has never undergone a psychiatric assessment of any depth, McNab says. Blue Murder covers the height of their relationship, which ended with Smith being charged for the murders of (among others) Huckstepp and Harvey Jones and with Rogerson leaving the force. Rogerson, 80, and McNamara, 62, were jailed for . In late January, 1985 Flannerys family home was sprayed with rounds from a rifle. News Limited reported Thursday that police four years ago investigated claims Woodward was killed and buried in sand hills behind a beach south of Sydney. You might also be interested in these Crime Scene Investigator stories: Charismatic and affable. Storms threaten north-east United States after tearing through the south, leaving 10 dead. . Arthur 'Neddy' Smith. In 1981 came Rogerson's most high profile police killing, the shooting of heroin dealer Warren Lanfranchi in an inner-Sydney alleyway. The 20-year-old student was shot dead in a Padstow storage unit in 2014 and his body was wrapped in a tarpaulin anddumped in Cronulla. And then we bring in Jamie Gao, whos pretty much the face of what Australian criminal gangsters or wannabe gangsters look like these days: young, smart, educated, going for the big quid.. Revealed: The new '23' number plates the DVLA deems offensive and has banned including EU23 OFF and GO23 HEL, The secret WhatsApp mode that lets you EDIT texts after you've sent them. Fond of talking about himself in the third person, Rogerson was known to say: "Roger is a tough cop in a tough town". Smith's long relationship with the since disgraced detective sergeant Roger Rogerson caused both men ongoing difficulties. Putin's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov provokes gales of laughter as he tells audience the West started Find out what Uber drivers really think of you! "I don't know why he said that but I wasn't going to tell Roger anyway because he would have kicked my a--- for touching a gun.". Blue Murder will appear in two parts, beginning at 8.30pm on Sunday on Channel 7. He was the master of the police verbal, an unsigned confession from a suspect, and operated in an era later classified as corrupt. My view is it started out as a drug deal that became a rip off and at some point in the planning Roger said, well if it doesnt go right, well just top him, end of story, he says.