Blue Murder: With Richard Roxburgh, Tony Martin, Steve Bastoni, Gary Day. He was. The prospect of an appeal still drives him, despite the court having denied him the ability to do so. What Rogerson didn't mention to me during my two visits was that his time to appeal was gone. He moved his bashing and murder business to Sydney where he made the big-time, including his failed attempt to murder police officer Mick Drury in June 1984. He also became an entertainer, telling stories of his police activities in a spoken-word stage show called The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, with former Australian footballers Warwick Capper and Mark "Jacko" Jackson. Smith later said that Rogerson ordered him to disarm Lanfranchi en route. Discover your rider rating - how many one-star reviews do Take care of your gut and it will take care of you: Could these 'friendly' bacteria transform your gut Are YOU eating the right colours? The death of Lanfranchi, whose girlfriend was heroin-addicted prostitute turned police corruption whistleblower, was ruled in the line of duty. Published Sep 4, 2016. 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. In May 2014, Rogerson was remanded in prison after being charged, along with fellow former NSW detective Glen McNamara, with the murder of 20-year-old student Jamie Gao, and supply of drugs. Fellow detective Michael Drury opens up on Roger Rogerson and 1984 shooting, "He rightly perceived that if the true position was disclosed then it may be suspected that he had concocted or at least moulded his story about providing a pistol to suit Rogerson's interests.". They also were jailed for stealing 2.78 kilograms of methamphetamine with a street value of up to $19 million from the 20-year-old student. While Smith was virtually untouchable as he ran amok across Sydney many of his criminal associates on the 1980s died violently. The pair was also found guilty of taking part in the supply of 2.8kg of methamphetamine, known in Australia by its street name ice. The comments below have not been moderated. The man denied any involvement but was visibly shaken. Glen McNamara (right) is escorted by a correctional services officer as he leaves the NSW Supreme Court in 2016. Credit: Daniel Munoz. He said he arranged for it to be handed over to McNamara. Followed categories will be added to My News. Born in 1921, McPherson was convicted of various crimes as a boy and . Crooks loved him. I'm a vet, and here are five dog breeds most prone to cancer - including Golden Retrievers and Rottweilers. Roger Rogerson was jailed for life for the 2014 murder of student Jamie Gao. [17][18], Rogerson received a criminal conviction, which was overturned on appeal, for involvement in drug dealing, allegedly conspiring with notorious Melbourne drug dealer Dennis Allen to supply heroin. Rising through the ranks, he won 12 commendation awards and worked on some of Australia's biggest cases of the 1970s, before his well-documented slide into infamy. According to Camden, the noted historian of the 16th century, this name Roger was a valiant . Inside Prince Harry's finances from when he met Meghan Markle to landing 100M with Netflix and book Spare 'Why the last-minute delay?' Rogerson The first Blue Murder series is largely based on Smiths book Neddy. Since joining Smith at Long Bay there have been occasional reports from criminal and police sources of the pair being sighted together which Corrective Services always denied. Drury alleged that Rogerson had tried to bribe him to changes his evidence in the heroin trial of Melbourne dealer Alan Williams. The Court of Criminal Appeal threw out their cases in Sydney this morning, almost five years after they were jailed for life for murdering Jamie Gao. Had Jamie been a little bit more dexterous in the use of Google he might actually have not gone to that deal, he 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. Gao's body was later dumped off the coast. Rogerson is serving life in prison, alongside fellow former police officer Glen McNamara, over the murder of 20-year-old drug dealer Jamie Gao in May 2014. McNamara is yet to make any submissions. Recorded as Roger, Rodger, Rojer, and the patronymics Rogers, Rodgers, Rodgerson, Rodson, Roddison, Rogerson and others, this is an Anglo-Scottish surname, but one of French origins. He is also known for his association with other New South Wales (NSW) detectives who are reputed to have been corrupt, including Ray "Gunner" Kelly and Fred Krahe, and with a number of organised crime figures, including Abe Saffron,[7] Arthur "Neddy" Smith and Christopher Dale Flannery. What an interesting confluence: one man who has an appalling reputation but has rehabilitated himself to genial rogue for hire, and a bloke whos supposed to be pure and downtrodden, McNab says. Rogerson had once been the brightest star in the New South Wales Police Force and Smith one of the heaviest criminals that Sydney has known. Jamie Gao's . On April 23, 1985 Flannery is said to have been responsible for the gangland shooting of drug dealer Tony Spaghetti Eustace by his gold Mercedes. Rogerson, McNamara 'should be jailed for life' over Gao murder, Rogerson, McNamara jailed for life for murder of Jamie Gao, Canberra coach Ricky Stuart slams NRL, RLPA following further concussion controversy, 'How dare they': Possum Magic author hits out at 'ridiculous' Roald Dahl edits, 'Dastardly and heinous crime': Philippines governor killed at home by unknown gunmen, Vanuatu hit by two cyclones and twin earthquakes in two days, Emily was studying law when she had to go to court. He hasn't seen him for however long he's been in jail.'. Rogerson, 75, and McNamara, 57, were found guilty of murdering Mr Gao, 20, during a drug deal at a Padstow storage facility on May 20, 2014 and dumping his body in waters off Cronulla the next day. "Because he was (Clint Eastwood's) Dirty Harry," says one veteran reporter. Nationwide News Pty Ltd 2023. CCTV showed both men walking into the facility with the young drug dealer. ), English footballer; Stan Rodgerson (1894-1955), Australian rules footballer; See also. More than three decades later, Rogerson now stands as both the definitive figure of police corruption in Australia and also arguably the best-connected figure ever to stalk the criminal underworld. 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. 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. "Oh it's a little f------ beauty isn't it Oh and by the way, don't tell Roger about this," the witness alleged McNamara said. He became a Sydney celebrity because of his close relationship during the 1980s with corrupt police detective Roger Rogerson. Still, it fascinates me that Rogers career was brought to an end by a 20-year-old Asian kid with an education.. Im not the only visitor outside his circle of family and friends. Detectives have variously described . His defence is trying to establish he wasn't part of the agreement to kill or rob the victim. He says McNamara wasnt a hero cop whose career was ruined by his battle against corruption that was a fiction he created. Test your knowledge by naming all 20 of these famous films. Flannery, known as "Mr Rent-a-Kill", later disappeared. In 1999, Rogerson was convicted of perverting the course of justice and lying to the Police Integrity Commission. They were famously photographed slapping each other with wads of $50 notes for the benefit of federal police surveillance unit at Chinatown's Covent Garden Hotel. Corrupt cops Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara are contemplating a lifetime behind bars after losing their appeals. His wife Anne Melocco told Daily Mail. 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. [21], On 17 February 2005, Rogerson and his wife, Anne Melocco, were convicted of lying to the 1999 Police Integrity Commission. In January 1958, he joined the New South Wales Police Cadet Service. Unlike the remains of lawyer Brian Alexander, which has never been found, Gaos body wrapped in a blue tarpaulin bobbed to the surface off Cronulla beach in May, 2014. In the following months, the cocaine and booze-fuelled Flannery became increasingly erratic. Rogerson has always maintained from that time on Smith was no more than a valuable informant for the Armed Hold-Up Squad. Smith's long relationship with the since disgraced detective sergeant Roger Rogerson caused both men ongoing difficulties. Two words showed something was wrong with the system, After centuries of Murdaugh rule in the Deep South, the family's power ends with a life sentence for murder, With Prince Andrew's sweetheart mansion rental ending, King Charles offers compromise that shocks his son, Flooding in southern Malaysia forces 40,000 people to flee homes. Former detectives Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara have been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Jamie Gao. It was the type of relationship that had often existed before - Smith . Christopher Dale Flannery. [29], On 25 August 2016, Rogerson and McNamara faced a sentencing hearing. Although gun residue was found on Rogerson's clothes, the judge said he couldn't be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt of who fired the fatal shot. But the three appeal judges agreed Witness A was a "liar". [35][36][37], Soon after the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub fire on 8 March 1973, Sydney detectives Roger Rogerson and Detective Sergeant Noel Morey were called to Brisbane to assist in the investigation. Smith was a convicted heroin dealer, rapist and armed robber who claimed Rogerson gave him the "green light" to commit crimes in NSW, while Flannery specialised in contract killing. Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Reborn as an investigative journalist and author, McNab became Rogersons unauthorised biographer with his 2006 book The Dodger. "Oh it's a little f------ beauty isn't it Oh and by the way, don't tell Roger about this," the witness alleged McNamara said. While dealing narcotics he was also pulling off brazen armed robberies worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, Smith, who was once the most infamous crook in Australia, was serving life for murder. Rogerson was eventually jailed in 1990 for conspiring to pervert the course of justice over the transfer of A$110,000 into bank accounts under false names during the Drury trial. [40], Richard Roxburgh portrayed Rogerson in the 1995 TV mini-series Blue Murder and its 2017 sequel Blue Murder: Killer Cop.[41]. Roger Rogerson being escorted to a prison van at the Supreme Court in Sydney in 2016. VideoRussian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims, The children left behind in Cuba's mass exodus, Xi Jinping's power grab - and why it matters, Snow, Fire and Lights: Photos of the Week. [4][5] During his time in office he was implicated inbut never convicted oftwo killings, bribery, assault and drug dealing.[6]. He had been due to testify in a major drugs trial and alleged that Rogerson offered him a bribe to protect a Melbourne drug dealer. BLUE Murder was the original true crime TV blockbuster with scenes so shockingly thrilling about the lives of Sydneys cops and gangsters that it was a hit even while it was still banned. The Dodger had brought a whole new network of people who knew Rogerson out of the woodwork. McNamara had argued that would have convinced the jury that Rogerson shot Gao and he was under duress when he helped dispose of the body. Rogerson is in the Kevin Waller Unit for aged and frail prisoners at Long Bay. He was released from Kirkconnell Correctional Centre on 17 February 2006. The following day her body was found floating in Busby Pond, in Centennial Park. Languishing in Long Bay he was paired with a police informer dubbed Mr Brown who secretly recorded him confessing to a string of 1980s murders, all of which he later denied having committed. Both Rogerson and McNamara lodged a notice of intention to appeal days after their life sentences were imposed in 2016. Roger Rogerson was the teak-hard. The latter are alleged to. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Ken Bruce finishes his 30-year tenure as host of BBC Radio 2, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Hershey's Canada releases HER for SHE bars featuring a trans activist, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA, Fleet-footed cop chases an offender riding a scooter, Family of a 10-month-old baby filmed vaping open up. Smith said Lanfranchi had asked him to organise a payment to Rogerson so that the dealer wasnt charged with the police shooting. It was an unsettling enough account for its subject that Rogerson, having emerged from jail after a stint for perjury, phoned up the author to give his first personal glimpse of his dangerous side. 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. This page was last edited on 7 January 2023, at 20:08. 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. He was released on appeal after nine months, but in 1992 that appeal was quashed and he was re-imprisoned until 1995. Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara sentenced to life in jail for Jamie Gao murder. It was quite disturbing. Tim Anderson, one of the three released in 1985, claimed the confession Rogerson extracted was fabricated, and that he and two other members of the Ananda Marga group were convicted in part because of Rogerson's fabrications. Rogerson and McNamara were found guilty after a four-month trial that showed CCTV footage linking them to the death of Gao, whose body was found floating in a bag in the ocean off Sydney. Ive never seen a man more terrified in my life, he says. It is understood many of Rogersons fellow prisoners at the Kevin Waller wing suffer age-related memory loss, allowing him to persuade them into letting him use their allocated phone time. Rogerson and another former cop, Glen McNamara, were found guilty of shooting Gao inside a west Sydney storage . He later joked that the only way to identify Western's bullet-ridden body was by his ingrown toenails. Smith would claim that before Jones disappeared - his body was not found until 1995 - the sometime used car salesman had been arranging to pay Rogerson $60,000 to make gold bullion theft charges go away. Rogerson was jailed . Throughout their trial, Roger asserted McNamara was the architect of the deadly plot and he only gave grandfatherly advice.. [33] However, Rogerson then lodged an appeal in 2020. 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. The menacing conversation included an unsuccessful attempt by Rogerson to wound his biographer by recalling the suicide of a colleague whod been involved in a fatal hit and run on a child and to whose parents McNab had to break the news. Three years later he was tried for conspiring with hitman Christopher Dale Flannery to murder Drury. People whove known him have seen the facade drop, and it drops hard and fast, and the real Roger pops out: vile, vicious, opportunistic, McNab says. Drury spent 12 days in a coma, but survived. The surname Rogerson was first found in Aberdeenshire (Gaelic: Siorrachd Obar Dheathain), a historic county, and present day Council Area of Aberdeen, located in the Grampian region of northeastern Scotland from ancient times, some say as early as the 11th century. His wife Anne Melocco told Daily Mail Australia that Rogerson had mentioned Smith's death but there had certainly been no celebration or revengeful one-liners. , who was shot dead inside a Padstow storage unit in 2014. 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. Roger Caleb Rogerson (born 3 January 1941) is a former detective sergeant of the New South Wales Police Force, and a convicted murderer. Lanfranchi was something of a wild man who shot at police and robbed other dealers, and also a standover man who worked for Sydney gangster Neddy Smith. Apparently he has been regularly enjoying using far more than his allotted precious telephone minutes. Rogerson was jailed again in 2005 for 12 months for lying to NSW's Police Integrity Commission about bribing a local council official to obtain work. The female roles of Neddy Smiths wife Debra (Joy Smithers) and Lanfranchis prostitute girlfriend Sallie-Anne Huckstepp (Loene Carmen) give this story depth. Rogerson was referring to the fact that there was a manhunt for him and that his mate Glen McNamara had been arrested on his way back from Cooma jail where he had been discussing the extortion plan. According to his girlfriend, Sallie-Anne Huckstep, who pursued the matter through the media, Lanfranchi was unarmed and carrying A$10,000 (5,200, $7,350) - money which was never found. [34], During legal proceedings surrounding the trial against suspects involved in the 2009 contract murder of Michael McGurk, the Supreme Court heard evidence that, while in the Cooma Correctional Centre in 2014, Rogerson, McNamara, and Fortunato "Lucky" Gattellari attempted to extort Ron Medich, a businessman and suspect for masterminding the murder of McGurk. The jury said I didn't act in self-defence. Disgraced former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng said he lived through "absolute hell" during a six-month stint in a Malaysian prison riddled with vermin and disease, according to . The last time I'd spoken to him - or rather been spoken at by him - he said he'd make sure I was 'sorted out'. Behind his brazen public persona, however, lies a dark and deadly history. [16], Fellow police officer Michael Drury has alleged that Rogerson was involved in his attempted murder. Former Sydney detectives Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara have lost an appeal against their convictions for murdering a drug dealer. In the wake of Rogersons arrest over the Gao murder, the flow of information quickened as people who previously had been reticent to talk all of a sudden really started talking. CCTV showed both men walking into the storage unit with the drug dealer and at their trial they each blamed theother for killing him. 00:55. In the pre-digital era, illegal bootleg video cassettes of Blue Murder I and II were jealously guarded, surreptitiously leant and massively copied. Rogerson was acquitted of Drurys shooting, but was convicted of perverting the course of justice over a false bank account. But Drury believed the shocking truth that Rogerson was involved, and could only publicly admitted it after the disgraced detective was convicted for Jamie Gaos murder in late 2016.