Rogerson is known to most Australians as a prominent, recurring figure in the country's efforts to eradicate corrupt crime fighters. Glen McNamara is escorted by a correctional services officer as he leaves the NSW supreme court in Sydney in February 2016. [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. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. 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. But McNab put the project to bed and expected never to write again of Rogerson, presuming the fallen copper would see out his days casting a line over a dinghy and bouncing grandchildren on his lap. It was an offer I couldnt refuse, and Mrs Rogerson assured me hed be on his best behaviour. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group, Mom who lost both sons to fentanyl blasts laughing Biden, Two Russian tanks annihilated with bombs by Ukrainian armed forces, Isabel Oakeshott receives 'menacing' message from Matt Hancock, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' 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. A generation of his colleagues have either keeled over or retired, and Rogers looking around for fresh playmates, McNab says. 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. Delving deep again into a signal event in Rogersons past the 1981 shooting of heroin dealer Warren Lanfranchi, which began the coppers original fall from grace he tracked down a man believed to have witnessed the event as a teenager on the street. Notorious gangster Neddy Smith died aged 76 in Long Bay jail last week while serving a life sentence of murder. On 6 June 1984, Flannery was allegedly the shooter who fired two rounds through the kitchen window of the home of Sydney Drug Squad detective, Michael Mick Drury. Behind his brazen public persona, however, lies a dark and deadly history. Given the lead role of Rogerson, brave cop and bad cop rolled into one, Roxburgh played the Roger on the move, taking care of Sydneys most dangerous and violent criminals. The request was for a chat, not an interview. In June 2016, Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara were found guilty of killing student Jamie Gao for his drugs (Partridge, 2016a). 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. The prospect of an appeal still drives him, despite the court having denied him the ability to do so. 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. Roger Rogerson was the teak-hard. Neddy Smith stood trial for her murder, but was acquitted. 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. Its a challenge that will almost certainly elude this once-celebrated detective - who will now likely die in jail. CONDEMNED to spend the rest of his days behind bars, disgraced detective turned convicted killer Roger Rogerson will be held in an aged care wing where he regularly conducts singalongs, to stop him becoming a godfather-type figure to young inmates, prison sources have revealed. Crooks loved him. He grumbles about the attention but relishes telling old stories to a fresh audience. He was released on appeal after nine months, but in 1992 that appeal was quashed and he was re-imprisoned until 1995. It was McNamara who met Gao through his own consultancy work for lawyers, when the young man was acting as a translator for a friend in strife. Rogerson was tried but acquitted on conspiracy to murder charges. Smith was a major heroin distributor in Sydney when the city's streets were awash with that drug. 'He did mention that he probably would have been dead long before if he hadn't been in jail but that's about it,' she said, Rogerson and Smith could often be found drinking at inner-city pubs including Alexandria's Star and Iron Duke, the Captain Cook at Millers Point and the Lord Wolseley in Ultimo. An inquest heard Rogerson fatally shot Lanfranchi while trying to effect an arrest, but failed to find it was done in self-defence. Late last year, as Rogerson languished in a cell in the geriatric unit of Sydneys Long Bay jail over the Gao murder, I received a call from his wife Anne. 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, 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. There are three known killings directly attributed to Rogerson: Gao and the on duty shootings of Lanfranchi and would-be armed robber Lawrence Byrne in 1977. "Mr McNamara said don't tell Rogerson because that goes to the whole issue whether or not the applicant had any knowledge of whether or not there was a gun," John Stratton SC argued. Watch the video above about Roger Rogerson's sentencing. He was as floored as anyone when, one Sunday evening in 2014, calls and emails came flooding in pointing to an astonishing final act in the Dodgers criminal career. Brisbane's Whiskey Au Go Go fire killed 15 people. He was released from Kirkconnell Correctional Centre on 17 February 2006. This was because John Andrew Stuart, accused of lighting the fire, had said criminals from Sydney were behind the nightclub extortion attempts. Hes in his mid-60s but Roger misses being on centre stage in the criminal life so hes reconstructing his drug-dealing mates.. Rogerson joined the New South Wales (NSW) police in 1959, aged 18. [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. Geesche Jacobsen, Kate McClymont (21 February 2005). In 2005, when Roger Rogerson was sentenced to his second stint in jail - this time for lying under oath to the Police Integrity Commission six years earlier, unaware the true story had been captured on audiotapes - a District Court judge and a prominent psychiatrist both expressed the view that the former NSW detective might be rehabilitated and [12] He has two daughters by his first wife Joy Archer. Rogerson had publicly accused Smith of informing on other criminals in media interviews and in the early 1990s the crook spectacularly turned on the copper. But the whiff of suspicion persists that Rogerson had a hand in at least seven others. 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. Had Jamie been a little bit more dexterous in the use of Google he might actually have not gone to that deal, he says. As one officer scoured through frames of CCTV vision from the storage unit, an older colleague passing by spotted a figure with a distinctive gait. 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. He was the master of the police verbal, an unsigned confession from a suspect, and operated in an era later classified as corrupt. Blindsided: Stars affair rocks hit show, Reality star sent to jail over secret sex tape. I left school at 16 with six GCSEs - and became a self-made millionaire. Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara lose appeal over Jamie Gao's murder. "I guess I thought about it a lot from the start but I wanted to put it out of my mind," he said. Roger Rogerson, 80, was in Long Bay's aged and frail unit last Wednesday when a prison officer told him his longtime accomplice turned enemy Neddy Smith had died in the jail hospital aged 76. Flannery, known as "Mr Rent-a-Kill", later disappeared. "It was the '80s. Smith has spent much of his life in prison for earlier crimes, but despite his reputation as a killer, he was convicted of only two deaths. A new book by former colleague Duncan McNab details how the charismatic one-time detective manipulated generations of fellow officers and gangsters, but when the mask slipped he revealed a vile and vicious criminal. Drury refused and believed Rogerson was behind the attempt on his life. Apparently he has been regularly enjoying using far more than his allotted precious telephone minutes. With his running knowledge of underworld sellers and buyers, Rogerson was a fantastic middleman but came to grief when he stopped being middleman and decided to actually take a bigger slice, McNab says. On June 9, 1981, according to Smith, he was ordered by Rogerson to drive Lanfranchi a meeting at Dangar Place, a back lane in the inner city Sydney suburb of Chippendale. Rogerson and McNamara argued the guilty verdict could not be supported by evidence and there hadbeen a miscarriage of justice. Roger Rogerson was jailed for life for the 2014 murder of student Jamie Gao. [16], Fellow police officer Michael Drury has alleged that Rogerson was involved in his attempted murder. In Blue Murder, Smith is shown murdering Sallie-Anne Huckstepp, although in real life he was charged but acquitted of that murder. His wife Anne Melocco told Daily Mail. 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. Early Origins of the Rodgerson family. 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. 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.